I 




Book T~5 



HISTORY 









ROMAN LITERATURE; 



Jftttrotmrtorg ©fegertattott 



THE SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE 
LATIN LANGUAGE. 



EDITED BY THE 



REV. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A. 

Curate of Wrington, Somerset ; formerly Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, 




LONDON: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GRIFFIN & CO. 

53, BAKER STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE ; AND 

RICHARD GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW. 
1852. 






LONDON : 
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 



ENCYCLOPEDIA METROPOLITAN! : 



System of ®nibnsal Bnofckfcrge 



ON A METHODICAL PLAN 



PEOJECTED BY SAMUEL TAYLOE COLEEIDGE. 



SECOND EDITION, KEYISED, 



£{!iri Mnwkn. lisinnj nut 36ingrnpji^ 



ROMAN LITERATURE. 



LONDON: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GEIPEIN & CO. 

53, BAKER STREET, PORTJIAN SQUARE ; AND 

EICHAED GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW. 
1852. 



HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 



BY 



THE EEY. HENEY THOMPSON, M.A. 

CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET; 
FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF ST.JOHN's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 



THE EEV. JOHN MASON NEALE, M.A. 

WARDEN OF SACKVILLE COLLEGE, EAST GRINSTEAD. 



JOHN HENEY NEWMAN, B.D. 

FORMERLY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



THE LATE EEY. EDWAED SMEDLEY, M.A. 

FORMERLY FELLOW OF SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 

THE LATE THOMAS AENOLD, D.D. 



HEAD MASTER OF RCGJJI SCHOOL; 
AND 

THE EEY. J. B. OTTLEY, M.A. 

LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



EDITED BY THE 



EEV. HENKY THOMPSON, M.A. 



SECOND EDITION, EEVISED AND ENLARGED. 



PREFACE. 

In the advertisement to the volume of this Enclycopsedia 
which contains the History of Greek Literature it has been 
stated that the plan of that volume would be that of the 
others. That plan was, in brief, to make the subject complete, 
so far as an Encyclopaedia could attain completeness, by adding 
to the articles in the former edition such as should appear 
necessary for the purpose; and to translate all passages requisite 
for giving the general reader an intelligible view of the subject. 

The present editor has endeavoured to achieve this object 
by considerably enlarging and improving, from sources which 
have arisen in the interim, the papers on Latin Poetry which 
he contributed to the first edition ; by adding another on the 
Latin prose writers, subsequent to the time of the Antonines, 
writers of whom no mention had been made in that work ; and 
by prefixing a dissertation on the History of the Latin Language. 
He has also appended biographical notes to the valuable paper 
of Dr. Arnold on Eoman History ; added to each article biblio- 
graphical notices from approved authorities ; and left, he 
believes, no passage untranslated which it was of importance 
to render into English. He has, however, assumed that the 
volume will be chiefly read by those who are not wholly unac- 
quainted with Latin writers. The articles by Mr. JSTewman 
and Mr. Ottley have undergone revision and amplification by 
their authors. One important improvement, for which the 
editor confidently expects the gratitude of all readers, is the 
paper contributed by that eminent scholar, Mr. JNeale, on 
Ecclesiastical Poetry. The time is happily gone by when no 
genius or excellence could be acknowledged in productions 
which were not cast in a certain arbitrary mould; when all 



viii PREFACE. 

architectural beauty was limited to the " five orders," and all 
poetry to the writers " melioris sevi et notse." The eccle- 
siastical poets are now acknowledged to be worthy the study 
of scholars ; and perhaps there is no individual of our country 
who has been more instrumental in effecting this happy result 
than the distinguished author of the article on that subject 
which enriches this volume. To have treated the Latin prose 
writers on theology, jurisprudence, or other sciences, great as 
are the merits of some, and the archaeological value of all, would 
have extended this volume beyond all proper limits : but the 
poets of the Church, as the authors of a new literature, having a 
life and spirit of its own, were entitled to a record in this 
history. And, although the article on this subject is purely 
literary, the theological student will find it interesting, as 
affording a view of the doctrinal purity of the ancient Catholic 
Church, and the contrasted character of late additions to the Faith. 

The Illustrations to the present volume will, the editor 
believes, be deemed an important improvement. A list of them, 
with the authorities whence they are derived, is appended. A 
chronology, the result of a careful collation, is also added. 

The editor, it will be seen, has ventured to continue his 
scepticism on the existence of such a ballad literature as has 
been claimed for the Romans by Niebuhr, and by his " popular 
expositor," Mr. Macaulay, whose magnificent Lays of Ancient 
Borne have given a world-wide interest to the subject. If the 
editor were at issue with these eminent scholars on any question 
of fact, he might well indeed distrust himself. But he has not 
been guilty of any such presumption. The facts are patent. 
The opinion he makes bold to entertain is only an inference. 
It is unquestionable that there did exist a rude narrative Latin 
minstrelsy : but was it of such an order as a Percy or a Scott 
would have preserved for its poetical merit ? 

Mr. Macaulay inclines to the affirmative, on the ground that 
every other nation has possessed a ballad literature — a fact 
admitted in this work. 1 But this supposes a certain amount 
of the imaginative faculty existing in every community. It is 
matter of fact that, in this faculty, the Romans were altogether 

1 Pa-e 11. 



PREFACE. ix 

deficient. Had they possessed it, they would surely have 
welcomed the importation of Greek literature after a very 
different fashion. The old ballads might have been despised, 
but an original school would still have succeeded. In England, 
where there had been a noble ballad literature, the revival of 
learning, though it operated extensively, produced no such 
servility as resulted from the first intercourse of Latium 
with the Greek poets — Spenser and Sidney were kindled, not 
moulded, by the contact. 1 Moreover, the old ballads never 
lost their ground till the nation became influenced by France ; 
and even then, the pulse of the cold and correct Addison 
quickened at " Chevy Chase," and Percy's " Eelicks " were 
received with an enthusiasm that broke the chilling spell which 
French drawing-rooms had laid on the Muse of England. No 
country has owed more to Greece than G-ermany : and she has 
richly paid her debt ; but not in Greek coinage. On the con- 
trary, a more original literature than the German cannot 
exist ; and the classical student, when he enters on it, seems 
transported to another world. The Italian literature had a 
powerful influence on that of Spain ; yet it was but a new cos- 
tume, not an internal and organic change ; and the native 
school had its readers and its writers. But had not Homer sung, 
we should have had no iEneid, nor anything approaching one. 

"Nsevius," says Mr. Macaulay, " seems to have been the 
last of the ancient line of poets." If he were so, the ballad 
literature of Eome has been a serious loss to us. But surely 
this has not been demonstrated. Nsevius wrote after the Greek 
literature began to operate on the Roman mind. His dramas 
appear to have been essentially Greek ; and, if he adopted the 
Saturnian measure in his epic, it was moulded, rude as it was, 
on the principles of Greek prosody, not of Latin rhythm, as 
the Saturnians of the old balladists are said to have been. 
Naevius was probably as distinct from the balladists as Pompo- 
nius from the Atellane poets of old time. His great popu- 

1 Milton might seem an eminent instance of the originality compatible 
with a close adherence to classical models. But as he had for his poem 
sources, and those of the sublimest kind, which the ancients had not, his 
example is not here insisted on. 



x PREFACE. 

larity in the Augustan day is suggestive. Copies, it seems, 
were unnecessary to preserve what every Roman knew by 
heart. l If, therefore, Nsevius was but one, though the last, 
of the balladists, how happened it that he was the only one 
remembered and cherished by a people so devoted to national 
renown as the Romans ? As a matter of fact, the Greek lite- 
rature did not universally induce a contempt of native 
antiquity. There was, in the most literary period of Rome, a 
school which almost made antiquity the criterion of excellence ; 
which held that the Muses themselves had inspired the early 
documents of the city ; and which praised, on account of their 
venerable age, verses which few, if any, could understand. 

Either Naevius did not belong to the balladists, or, if he did, 
it will not be easy to solve the phenomenon that those who 
had preserved his poetry in their memories should have allowed 
that of his fellow-minstrels to perish. For, be it remembered, 
the philarchaic school was not a growth of the Augustan age : 
on the contrary, the spirit of that period sought its extinction ; 
and, in a great measure, effectually. 

The old ballads then, in all probability, perished from the 
mind of the people, because they had no inherent poetic 
vitality ; as Wasvius was treasured by the multitude, because, 
though rude, he had Greek life and energy. In truth, the 
poetic element was wanting in the Roman idiosyncrasy. Even 
the language had no word for the idea — word and idea were 
equally Greek, for vates properly signified prophet, not poet ; 
and the latter meaning was secondary, inasmuch as the old 
prophets gave their predictions in verse. 

While, then, the editor makes no doubt of the existence of 
Roman ballads, detailing in some instances narratives which, 
as Mr. Macaulay has manifested, were capable of high poetic 
development in the hands of imaginative writers, yet he sees no 
evidence that such ballads told their story in any other form 
than the baldest and driest — being metrical only for the con- 
venience of memory : and he therefore adheres to the view which 

1 This seems the most natural reading and interpretation. See 
p. 17. But take the words how we will, the popularity of Namus is 
necessarily their burden. 



PREFACE. x i 

he expressed in the first edition of this work, long before the 
publication of Mr. Macaulay's book, of dating the true begin- 
ning of all Roman literature from intercourse with Greece. 

Closely connected with the subject of early Roman poetry is 
that of the metre in which it is supposed to have been written. 
Much has been said by recent writers on the Saturnian verse ; 
and the opinions of JNTiebuhr on this subject will be found dis- 
cussed in the 44th and following pages of this work. The 
dictum of that great historian, on a question of this kind, 
would be entitled to an almost reverential regard ; but when 
he adduces the authorities from which he derives his con- 
clusion, that conclusion may be examined, without pre- 
sumption, by scholars of the multitude. The editor will take 
this opportunity of amplifying a note to page 44, which 
appears to him to contain a large proportion of the controversy. 
The term Saturnius, then, like Satura, seems to have possessed 
two quite distinct applications. In both of these, however, 
it simply meant " as old as the days of Saturn ;" and, like the 
Greek 'tiyvyios, was a kind of proverbial expression for something 
antiquated. Hence, (1.) the rude rhythmical effusions which 
contained the early Roman story might be called Saturnian, not 
with reference to their metrical law, but to their antiquity ; and, 
(2.) the term Saturnius was also applied to a definite measure, 
on the principles of Greek prosody, though rudely and loosely 
moulded — the measure employed by Nsevius, which soon 
became antiquated, when Ennius introduced the hexameter; 
and which is the metrum Satumiwn recognised by the gram- 
marians. The editor regrets that it has been only since the 
preliminary dissertation was written, and since the rest of the 
volume was printed, that he became acquainted with Dr. 
Donaldson's learned work, Varronianus. He has, however, 
revised the dissertation since ; and it will be seen, by references 
to Dr. Donaldson's work, where that eminent scholar has been 
consulted. He alludes to it now, however, for the purpose of 
shewing how vague and unsatisfactory are the attempts, even of 
the most accomplished scholars, to elicit a rhythmical verse from 
the old Latin remains. Dr. Donaldson scans all the epitaphs 
of the Scipios ; and makes the following remarks on them : — 



xii PREFACE. 

" The metre in which these inscriptions are composed is 
deserving of notice. That they are written in Saturnian verse 
has long been perceived; Niebuhr, indeed, thinks that they 
' are nothing else than either complete nenias, or the beginning 
of them.' (H. !R. i. p. 253.) It is not, however, so generally 
agreed how we ought to read and divide the verses. For 
instance, Niebuhr maintains- that patre in «, 2, 1 is, ' beyond 
doubt, an interpolation ;' to me it appears that it is necessary 
to the verse. He thinks that there is no ecthlipsis in apice, 
c. 1 ; 2 I cannot scan the line without it. These are only samples 
of the many differences of opinion which might arise upon these 
short inscriptions." 3 

" Only samples !" and what samples ! Is it conceivable that 
the v?OT&patre would have been cut on the stone, if it had been 
an interpolation ? And what kind of verse can this be, which 
one critic finds it necessary to abridge by a word of two 
syllables, before he can scan it, while another cannot scan it 
unless those two syllables are present ? Could there be 
" many differences of opinion " on "these short inscriptions," 
if they were really subject to a metrical law ? Again, in the 
epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio the Elder, Dr. Donaldson 
scans : — 

Consul, censdr, aidilis | qui fuit apud vos ; 

while, in that on the Younger Cornelius, he gives us — 

Conso'l, censor, aidiles | hie fuet apud vos : 

Surely both cannot be right. Is either ? 

Dr. Donaldson gives "the old Latin translation of an 

1 The epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio. 
2 Epitaph on the Flamen Dialis, P. Scipio. This inscription, it is true, is 
virtually called Carmen by Cicero (de Senect. xvii) who applies that term 
to the epitaph of Atilius Calatinus, similar in expression. But that very 
similarity shews that the word is to be rendered formula, as it frequently 
signifies. So Livy speaks of Duellius reciting the " Carmen rogationis," 
the legal formula, which was scarcely in verse. Indeed it is given by the 
historian, and nothing can appear less metrical. The formal differences 
between the epitaphs of the Flamen and Atilius are of themselves an 
argument that the inscriptions are not in verse. 
3 Varronianus, vi., 20. 



PJREFACE. xiii 

epigram, which was written, probably, by Leoniclas of Tarentum, 
at tlie dedication of the spoils taken at the battles of Heraclea 
and Ascnlum (b. c. 2S0, 279) ; and which," he adds, "should 
be scanned as follows : — 

Qui antedhac invicti | fuvere vfri | pater dptime Olympi || 
Hos ego in pugna vici || 
Vict usque sum ab isdem || 

He then subjoins : " Xiebuhr suggests (iii. note 341) that the 
first line is an attempt at an hexameter, and the last two an 
imitation of the shorter verse ;' and this remark shows the 
discernment which is always so remarkable in this great 
scholar. The author of this translation, which was, probably, 
made soon after the original, could not write in hexameter 
verse : but he represented the hexameter of the original, by a 
lengthened form of the Saturnius, and indicated the two 
penthemimers of the pentameter, by writing their meaning in 
two truncated Saturnians, — taking care to indicate, by the 
anacrusis, that there was really a break in the rhythm of the 
original pentameter, although it might be called a single line, 
according to the Greek system of metres." 

The first of these lines is, probably, a corrupted hexameter ; 
for the removal of one word leaves it a pure one. 2 This word, 
anted Jure, is, in all probability, an interpolation. It is just 
what a transcriber, ignorant of the law of the verse, would have 
interpolated, to make, as he might think, a better sense. 
"Whether the rest be " two truncated Saturnians " or not, quite 
certain it is that it is a pure hexameter ! 

(Hos ego in pugna vici, victusque sum ab isdem) 

for the absence of the synalcepha is not worth regarding at 
such an early period, especially with Greek authority in abun- 

1 The pentameter. 
2 A pure one, because the first syllable of fuvere for fuere is not only 
long, but, what is most important in the present controversy, the v, the 
representative of the digamma, is inserted, apparently, for the express pur- 
pose of making it so. (See Digamma in the volume on Greek Literature, 
p. 359, and Priscian's observations there quoted.) "Were the line an accen- 
tual Saturnian, it is manifest that there would be no necessity for departure 
from the ordinary form, as the accent would not thereby be affected. 



xiv PREFACE. 

dance. Surely, it must be evident to every reader unbeset by 
hypothesis, that, to say the least, if the first line is " an attempt 
at an hexameter," the last is no less. Dr. Donaldson inclines 
to press Mr. Macaulay into the controversy ; but clearly on 
insufficient grounds : for Mr. Macaulay acknowledges no Latin 
Saturnians which are not prosodiacal. 1 All we possess from the 
pen of Naevius are plainly so. 

"While making these observations, the editor would gratefully 
express his deep respect for the talent and scholarship of Dr. 
Donaldson, and his high sense of the value of his philological 
writings. The Varronianus deserves the gratitude of all who 
are interested in these studies ; and it has been a great satis- 
faction to the present writer, on revising his dissertation, to 
find his general views confirmed by so high an authority, 
especially on the subject of the Etruscan language ; the affinity 
of which to the Indo- Germanic dialects will, he believes, one 
day be demonstrated. Mr. Pococke's remarkable work, India 
in Greece, after allowing for many things which are fan- 
ciful, — scarcely to be avoided by one who had established so 
much, — is yet conclusive for a very extensive prevalence of 
Sanscrit and its dialects on the shores of the Mediterranean ; 
and the editor regrets that The Early History of Borne, promised 
by that author, should not have been available for these pages. 

The editor hopes that the improvements of this portion of 
the Encyclopedia Metropolitana may not be unworthy the 
memory of the accomplished scholar, under whose auspices the 
original work was conducted, the late Rev. Edward Smedley. 
With this brief mention of one who, in no ordinary degree, 
blended " true religion " with " useful learning," deep, exten- 
sive, and varied scholarship with pure and practical Christianity, 
he commends this volume to the public. 

H. T. 

Rectory, Wrington, 

July 26, 1852. 

1 " That it " [the Saturnian] " is the same with a Greek measure used by 
Archilochus is indisputable." — Preface to "Lays of Ancient Rome," p. 19, 
ed. 1848. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE SOURCES 
AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE 



LATIN POETEY. 



Part I.— THE EARLIER POETIC LITERATURE OF THE 

ROMANS 3 

Ballad Poetry . . 4 

Satyric Drama 7 

Regular Drama . . . 14 

Livius Andronicus 14 

Comedy 16 

Nsevius 16 

Plautus 17 

New Comedy ' . . .19 

Afranius 22 

Terence 23 

Tragedy . , . . 28 

Ennius 28 

Pacuvius 29 

Attius 29 

Satire 32 

Ennius 33 

Lucilius 35 

Varro 39 

Epopceia 42 

Nsevius 43 

Ennius 47 



xvi CONTENTS. 

Page 

Didactic Poetry 51 

Lucretius ......... 51 

Cicero 53 

Catullus 54 

Epigram 57 

Catullus 58 

MSS., Editions, &c, of the Ante-Augustan Poets . . . 62 

Part II.— THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF LATIN POETRY . 65 

Biography of Horace . . . . . . . . 65 

Writings of Horace 71 

Odes 71 

Imitations 72 

Iambics or Epodes 73 

Ethics and Criticism 74 

Carmen Sseculare 102 

Epistles to Augustus and the Pisos 103 

Chronology of his -writings 76 

Virgil 78 

Eclogues . . 78 

Georgics 83 

iEneid 91 

Minor poems 95 

Alpinus 84 

Bibaculus 85 

Fundanius 85 

Pollio 85 

Varius 86 

Valgius 86 

Cassius of Parma 90 

Anser 98 

Cornificius 98 

Tibullus 100 

Propertius . . . . . . . . . . 101 

Lyric Poetry 102 

Dramatic Degeneracy 106 

Closet Drama 109 

Mimes . Ill 

Laberius ...... ... 113 

Publius 115 



CONTENTS. xvii 

Page 

Matius 116 

General view of Augustan Poetry 117 

Ovid's Catalogue of Poets 118 

Gratius 119 

Manilius 119 

Phsedrus 120 

Ovid 121 

Character of his Poetry . . . - . . . 125 

Maecenas 128 

His literary character 129 

MSS., Editions, &c, of the Augustan Poets .... 131 



Part III.— DECLINE OF LATIN" POETRY 135 

Causes of the Decline of Latin Poetry 135 

Demoralization of the Romans 136 

Exhaustion of Greek Literature 137 

Germanicus 138 

Didactic and Epic Poetry 139 

Columella 140 

Lucan 140 

Polla Argentaria 143 

Seneca ....*. 143 

Pomponius Secundus 145 

Virginius 145 

Maternus 146 

Memor 146 

Varro ........... 146 

Seneca's Epigrams 147 

Satire 147 

Cornutus 149 

Persius 150 

Pal89mon 150 

Caesius Bassus 152 

Petronius 153 

Sosianus 158 

Turnus 159 

Lenius 159 

Silius 159 

Juvenal 159 

[r. l.] b 



i CONTENTS. 

Page 

State of Roman Literature 161 

Nero 161 

Poetry under the Vespasians 164 

Salejus Bassus 165 

Valerius Flaccus 166 

Domitian and his times 167 

Sulpicia . , 168 

Satire 168 

Vopiscus 168 

Statius the Elder 169 

Statius the Younger 170 

Stella . . . % 171 

Martial 172 

Canius 174 

Theophila 174 

Decianus 174 

Licianus 174 

Parthenius 174 

Varus 174 

Silius Italicus .. 174 

Pliny the Younger 175 

Voconius ........... 176 

PaullAs . 177 

Pompeius Saturninus 177 

Octavius 177 

Arrius 177 

Secundus 177 

Sentius Augurinus 177 

Capito 177 

Apollinaris . . 177 

Bruttianus 178 

Lucius ........... 178 

Unicus 178 

Vestritius Spurinna 178 

Review of the Flavian Age 178 

Domitian 178 

Nerva 179 

Trajan 179 

Valerius Pudens . 181 

Hadrian 181 



CONTENTS. x i x 

Page 

^Elius Verus 183 

Verus Antonius 183 

Age of the Antonines 183 

Paullus 185 

Annianus 185 

Serenus Sammonicus 185 

Clodius Albinus 185 

Sammonicus the Younger 186 

Septimius 186 

Terentian 186 

TheGordians 187 

Balbinus 187 

Gallienus 187 

Numerian 187 

Aurelius Apollinaris 188 

Nemesian 188 

Calpurnius ' 189 

Tiberian 189 

Effects of Christianity on Poetry 190 

Cyprian 190 

Tertullian 191 

Lactantius . . . 192 

Fortunatus 192 

Symposius 193 

Pentadius . . 193 

Flavius 193 

Porphyry the Less 194 

Juvencus 194 

Commodian ... ... 195 

Victorinus 195 

S. Hilary 195 

Damasus 195 

Callistus 195 

Matronianus 195 

Severus 195 

Ambrosius 195 

Avienus 195 

Avianus 196 

State of the Poetical Mind under the Byzantine Emperors 

and their Western Colleagues 197 

&2 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Valentinian 198 

Gratian 198 

Ausonius 198 

Arborius 199 

Paullinus 199 

Delphidius 201 

Proculus 201 

Alcimus 201 

Alethius 201 

Tetradius 201 

Crispus 201 

Theon 201 

Dionysius Cato 201 

Claudian 202 

Mamercus 204 

Prudentius 204 

Eutilius 204 

Poetry of the Sixth Century 205 

Phocas 205 

Flavius Merobaudes 205 

Priscian 205 

Marcianus Capella 205 

Prosper Tyro 205 

Sidonius Apollinaris 205 

MSS., Editions, &c., of the Post-Augustan Poets . . . 207 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETET. 



First Period.— THE DECOMPOSITION 216 

Commodianus 216 

Juvencus 217 

S. Hilary . . . . > 219 

S.Ambrose 220 

Prudentius 222 

S. Paulinus 228 

Sedulius 228 

Dracontius 231 



CONTENTS. 



xxi 



Page 

Arator 232 

S. Gregory the Great 232 

Victor 234 

Avitus 234 

Proba Falconia . . . . 235 

Second Period.— THE RESTORATION 236 

Fortunatus 236 

Venerable Bede 240 

Paulus Diaconus 241 

Charlemagne 241 

S. Theodulph 241 

Robert II 242 

Hartman 242 

S. Peter Damiani 242 

S. Fulbert 243 

Hildebert 244 

Marbodus 244 

S. Bernard 245 

Bernard de Morley .245 

S. Notker Balbulus 246 

Adam of S. Victor 246 

Thomas of Celano 250 

James de Benedictis ......... 251 

S. Thomas Aquinas 252 

Editions of the Ecclesiastical Latin Poets .... 254 

On the Measures Employed by Medleval Poets . . 256 



LATIN PEOSE WEITEES. 

CICERO 271 

Character of his Philosophical Writings 283 

New Academy 285 

Carneades 286 

Philo and Antilochus 290 

Mixed Philosophy of Cicero 290 

Rhetorical Works 295 



xxii CONTENTS. 

Page 

Moral and Physical Writings 298 

Poetical and Historical Works 303 

Orations 303 

Character of his Style 307- 

Roman Eloquence 309 

Orators before Cicero 310 

Ciceronian Age 310 

Decline of Roman Oratory 310 

MSS., Editions, &c, of Cicero's Works 312 

CICERONIANISM 321 

THE HISTORIANS OF ROME :— 

Theopompus 329 

Clitarchus 329 

Theophrastus 330 

Hieronymus 330 

Timseus 330 

Diodes 330 

How much of the Early Roman History is probably of 

domestic origin 330 

Q. Fabius Pictor 332 

Cincius Alimentus 332 

M. Porcius Cato 334 

L. Calpurnius Piso 335 

L. Crelius Antipater . . . . . . . . . 335 

Other earlier Historians 336 

Lucius Sisenna 336 

Polybius 337 

Exaggerated reputation of Roman Literature . . . 340 

Sallust 341 

Csesar 343 

Livy 345 

Speeches of Livy 350 

On the reputation of Livy 351 

Contrast between the early and later Grecian writers of 

History 352 

Dionysius of Halicarnassus 354 

Diodorus Siculus ......... 356 

Dion Cassius 357 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

Page 

Velleius Paterculus 360 

Tacitus 361 

Cornelius Nepos 364 

Plutarch 365 

Suetonius 365 

Floras 366 

Valerius Maxinius 367 

• Reflections on the duty of a historian .... 367 
MSS., Editions, &c, of the Historians of Rome . . . 370 



STATE OF ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF 

THE EMPEROR TRAJAN 377 

Reciters 378 

Decay of learning . 380 

Pliny the Elder 380 

Stoic Philosophy 383 

Sophists 385 

Effects of the Christian Religion ...... 386 

Of the government of Trajan 386 

Pliny the Younger 388 

Editions of the works of Pliny the Elder and of Pliny 

the Younger 390 

LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI . . 393 

Marcus Aurelius 393 

Lucianus 394 

Pausanias 401 

Julius Pollus 402 

Aulus Gellius 403 

Galenus 404 

Other Medical Writers 406 

Lucius Apuleius . . . . . .. . . .406 

Athenssus ........... 410 

Maxinius Tyrius 411 

M. Fabius Quinctilianus 414 

Ancient Oratory 416 

Editions, &c, of the Works of Roman Authors of the Age of 

the Antonini 421 



xxiv CONTENTS. 

Page 

POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS 420 

History 427 

Lost Biographies 428 

Historia Augusta 428 

iElius Spartianus 429 

Vulcatius Gallicanus 429 

Trebellius Pollio 429 

Flavius Vopiscus 429 

Lampridius 429 

Capitolinus 430 

Septimius 430 

Dares 430 

Aurelius Victor 430 

Eutropius 430 

Rufus 431 

Ammianus Marcellmus 431 

Orosius 432 

Sulpicius Severus 432 

Oratory 432 

Panegyrici Veteres 432 

Claudius Mamertinus Major 432 

Eumenius 432 

Nazarius 433 

Mamertinus Minor 433 

Drepanius 433 

Rhetoricians 433 

Letter Writers 435 

Symmachus 434 

Cassiodorus 435 

Philosophy 435 

Macrobius 435 

Boethius 436 

Editions, &c, of the Post-Antoninian prose-writers . . 438 



ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY . ... 449 



INDEX 45^ 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Vignette. La Musee Royale xxv 

The Tiber. From a Stateie in the Vatican . .... lxxv 

Terence. From an antique bust. G. F. Sargent . . .23 

Author reading his Plat at a Eoman Entertainment. From 

a marble cinerarium in the British Museum. G. F. Sargent. 26 

Lucius Accius, or Attius. From an antique bust at Rome, 

engraved by Johannes Antonius 29 

Masks. From a Mosaic at Hadrian's Villa 31 

Ennius. From a bust found in the tomb of the Scipios, near 

Porta Capena in Rome 47 

Lucretius. From an antique gem, engraved for the Batavian 

edition of his works in 1725 51 

Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine ..... 53 

Catullus. From an antique bust . . . . . . . 55 

Musical Entertainment. From a painting at Herculaneum . 63 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Horace. From an antique beryl, in the collection of Lord Grey. 
Worlidge. 



Pa K e 

65 

68 
69 
70 

77 

78 

87 

95 

96 

100 

101 

107 

Comic Actor in the Mimes. From a marble statue in the British 

Museum. G. F. Sargent 110 

Remains of the Flamixian Circus. Overbeke, Les Restes de 

l'ancienne Rome 116 

Obelisk of Augustus. Overbeke. Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 120 



MiECENAS. From a colossal bust, Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 

Brundusium 

Augustus. Visconti, Mus. Pio. Clementino. 

Tivoli. Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl .... 

Virgil. From a gem, engraved for the edition of his works edited 
by Sir H. Justice in 1757 

Virgil. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine .... 

Tomb of Virgil. Bartoli, gli. Ant. Sepolc. . 

Surrentum 

Tibullus. From an antique bust 

Propertius. From an antique bust 

The Coliseum. Piranesi 



Ovid. The portrait from a medal in the Rondanini Collection 
G. F. Sargent 



Mausoleum of Augustus. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne 
Rome 



Maecenas. From a marble basso-relievo, Visconti, Iconographie 
Romaine 

Remains of the Villa of Maecenas 

Vignette. From a painting at Herculaneum, Antiquites d' Her 
culaneum, gravees par F. A. David .... 

Remains of the Palace of the Cesars on Mount Palatine 
The modern building is the church of S. Maria Liberatrice 
The three columns are the remains of the Temple of Jupiter 
Stator. Venuti, Antichita di Roma .... 

Tiberius Cesar and Livia Augusta. Museum Florentinum 



121 
126 



128 
130 



133 



135 
136 



Drusus Germanicus. From a medal in the Florentine Museum 139 






LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxvii 

Page 

Lucan. From a medal engraved for the Venetian edition of Lis 

works in 1668 141 

Seneca. From an engraving by Vorstermans .... 143 

The Tarpeian Rock. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 147 

Persius. From a basso-relievo in marble . . . . . 150 

Juvenal. From an antique bust 159 

Nero and Popp^ea. Museum Florentinum .• . . . . 162 

Baths of Nero. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . . .163 

Titus. Museum Florentinum 164 

Arch of Titus 165 

Vespasian. Museum Florentinum 165 

Domitian. Museum Florentinum 167 

Martial. From an antique gem 172 

Nerva. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 179 

Hadrian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 181 

Antoninus Augustus Pius. From a coin in the Hunterian Museum 184 

Numerian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . .188 

Constantine the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . 194 

Apollo Belvedere 206 

Vase. Bacchanals. Real Museo Borbonico 210 

Arch of Constantine. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne 

Rome 213 

St. Jerom 216 

St. Ambrose 220 

Gregory the Great 235 

The Venerable Bede 236 

Charlemagne . 241 

Mediaeval Musical Instruments. Gerbertus Martinus de Cantu 

et Musica Sacra 253 

Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 271 

Temple of Peace. The modern building is the Church of S. 

Francesca Romana. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . . 272 

Temple of Fortuna Virilis 274 

Pompey the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . . 277 



xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Temple op Minerva. Built by Pompey. Overbeke, Les Restes 

de l'ancienne Rome 293 

Pantheon. A Temple of Agrippa 301 

Roman Orators 309 

The Forum 311 

Vignette. Mural painting at Herculaneum 317 

Erasmus 321 

Dea Roma. Museum Florentinum 329 

Fountain op Egeria. Antonelli's Views in Rome . . .331 

Cato the Censor. From a gem in the Ursini collection . . 334 

Sallust. From a marble bust in the Farnese Palace . . . 342 

Julius Caesar. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . . 342 

Livt. From an antique bust 345 

Halicarnassus. L'Univers pittoresque 355 

Tacitus. From an antique gem 361 

Plutarch. From an antique gem engraved for Reiski's German 

edition of his works 365 

Lady writing with a Style. Museo Borbonico . . . 369 

Trajan. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 377 

Pliny the Younger. From a marble bust 388 

Column op Trajan. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome . 389 

Antoninus Pius. Rossi, Raccolta di Statue .... 393 

Marcus Aurelius. From an antique bust. Visconti, Icono- 
graphie Romaine 394 

Lucian. From a marble bust 395 

Galen. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque 404 

Ruins of Rome 428 

Column op Marcus Aurelius. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne 

Rome 437 

Boy Reading. Panofka, Bilder Antiken Lebens . . . 445 

Vignette. Mural Painting, Pompeii 452 

A Roman Greeting 453 

Jupiter with Statue of Victory. Hope's Costumes of the 

Ancients .... 462 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 



EEV. HENET THOMPSON, M.A. 

LATE SCHOLAR OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; 
CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET. 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. 

It would be foreign to the purposes of this work to enter in 
this volume largely upon ethnological questions ; and those con- 
nected with Italy are singularly obscure and complicated. The 
subject has been treated with laborious and erudite research by a 
multitude of writers, who have come to the most discordant 
conclusions. It is here adverted to only because the intricacy 
which belongs to it is necessarily derived to the history of a 
language which resulted from a confluence of the various races of 
Italy in that central region termed Latium, or from the prepon- 
derating influence, within that region, of certain dominant com- 
munities existing without it. To define with certainty the several 
tributaries by which the mighty stream of Latin speech was supplied, 
and to trace with accuracy their several sources and channels, is 
absolutely impossible ; and were this not evident from the scantiness 
of documents, it would be so from the extravagance or discordance 
of the hypotheses which learned men have devised for the solution 
of the problem. While, therefore, we refer the reader who desires 
to be acquainted with what has been advanced on the subject, to 
the principal writers who have treated it, 1 we prefer to wild and 
idle theorising a simple statement of such phenomena as are either 
historically ascertained, or reasonably probable. 

It is quite obvious then that the Latin language consists of two 
elements at least — the more influential and prevalent being the 
^olic dialect of the Greek. The Eev. T. E. J. Yalpy, in his late 
very curious and interesting work, " Yirgilian Hours," professes to 

1 Niebuhr, in his Roman History and Lectures. Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua 
Etrusca. Arnold, Roman History. Miiller, Etrusker. Dunlop, History of Roman 
Literature. And Klenze, " zur Geschichte der altitalischen Volkstamme." 



distribution 
of Latin 
words. 



xxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

derive every word in the /Eneid from a Greek primitive. Few 
scholars, perhaps, will be convinced of his universal success, though 
many may be disposed to allow that there is more Greek in Latin 
than they imagined; and some may think his hypothesis even 
probable, while all will admire his aeuteness and ingenuity, and 
gratefully acknowledge the light which he has cast on the principles 
which govern the more abstruse and secret laws of classic etymology. 
Could we indeed believe that every word in a long poem like the 
iEneid was actually of Greek derivation, there would be no difficulty 
in allowing the same of the whole substance of the language. 1 But 
without for the present either affirming or disputing this point, it is 
evident that the Latin language, in literature at least, contained three 
classes of words. Of these, I. some were simple transplantations 
Triple from the Greek, apparently after an extensive intercourse subsisted 

with Magna Grsecia, or even Greece itself : such are Greek proper 
names, altered only in inflections ; and such substantives as 
thesaurus, athleta, emblema, pliilosopliia, epldppium, triclinium, &c. ; 
the coinage of Latin literary currency from Greek bullion being much 
encouraged and practised. 2 II. Some were obviously Greek, yet such 
as entered the language naturally, and were part of its essential 
elements : to these such proper names as Ajax, Ulysses (or TJlixes), 
JEsculapius, Hercules, &c, may be referred ; together with such 
words as fama, triumphus, anc/wra, vestis, macJdna, dexter, ago, 
lego, &c, &c, which form a large proportion of the language. 
III. But there still remains a class of words, which, if really of 
Greek origin, are evidently derived by a very different process. 
The maternal likeness is completely obliterated ; and the inquirer 
who would establish the relation must content himself with the 
indication of minute lineaments, in which few will be able to 
discover the parentage. Such are meta, lorica, clypeus, infula, &c, 
to which Mr. Yalpy has assigned Greek primitives, but the 
derivation of which is evidently a very different matter from that 
of either of the former classes. 

1 Mr. Valpy has since published " a Manual of Latin Etymology," in which he 
has advocated the universal descent of Latin from Greek. 
2 " Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si 

Grseco fonte cadan t, pared detorta." — Hor. Art. Poet. 52. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxx iii 

As the Latin literature arose out of the commerce of Latium 
with Greece, the first class of these words appears even in the 
earliest literary fragments which have reached us ; no subsequent 
writers having drawn more unscrupulously on Greek sources than 
Ennius and Lucilius. But, in investigating the formation of the 
language, the consideration of this class may be altogether laid 
aside, as its origin and history are palpable. There will remain only two 
therefore only the two others for examination. challenge 

Latium lay between the territories of races which we, in the inquiry - 
popular phraseology of antiquity, may designate Greeks and 
barbarians. The countries to the south were principally Greek 
settlements, though the Oscan language was extensively spoken in 
that region ; while the northern neighbours were of different 
descent. It is to these sources respectively, that the second and 
third classes of words composing the Latin language appear to be 
traceable. Of the Italian nations dwelling to the north of Latium, 
the most conspicuous are the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Oscans or 
Opicans ; the two last of which were related, and are by some 
writers identified. The Sabines, too, who were early incorporated 
with the Bomans, were of kindred origin with the Oscan people. 
Whether the Siculi, Itali, or Yituli, were subdued by the Casci or 
Prisci, an Oscan tribe, and whether there is any foundation for 
the well-known legend of JEneas and his Trojans, are investi- 
gations which belong rather to the history of the country than that 
of the language. It is sufficient to observe that Latium, situated 
as it was between the territories of the Greek and barbarian, 
or semi-barbarian tribes, over-run by both in turn, 1 and at 
last peopled by different races, 2 naturally acquired a language 
partaking the idiom of its neighbours. It is evident, also, that 
peace and its arts were chiefly cultivated by the Greek portion of 
the people, while the remainder were principally distinguished for 
military prowess. The terms of husbandry and rural and domestic 
occupation are mostly Greek : aratrum, bos, ovis, agnus, sus, aper, 
cquus, canis, sero, age?', sylva, vinum, lac, mel, sal, oleum, &c. 

1 " Latium colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigines, 
Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Auruuci, Rutuli." — Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5. 

2 " Quum populus Roman us Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et 
unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat, corpus fecit ex membris, et in omnibus unus 
est."— Flor. iii. 

[r. l.] c 



distribution 
of Latin 
words. 



xxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

derive every word in the JEneid from a Greek primitive. Few 
scholars, perhaps, will be convinced of his universal success, though 
many may be disposed to allow that there is more Greek in Latin 
than they imagined; and some may think his hypothesis even 
probable, while all will admire his acuteness and ingenuity, and 
gratefully acknowledge the light which he has cast on the principles 
which govern the more abstruse and secret laws of classic etymology. 
Could we indeed believe that every word in a long poem like the 
iEneid was actually of Greek derivation, there would be no difficulty 
in allowing the same of the whole substance of the language. 1 But 
without for the present either affirming or disputing this point, it is 
evident that the Latin language, in literature at least, contained three 
classes of words. Of these, I. some were simple transplantations 
Triple from the Greek, apparently after an extensive intercourse subsisted 

with Magna Graecia, or even Greece itself: such are Greek proper 
names, altered only in inflections ; and such substantives as 
thesaurus, atlileta, emblema, philosopliia, ephippium, triclinium, &c. ; 
the coinage of Latin literary currency from Greek bullion being much 
encouraged and practised. 2 II. Some were obviously Greek, yet such 
as entered the language naturally, and were part of its essential 
elements : to these such proper names as Ajax, Ulysses (or Ulixes), 
JEsculapius, Hercules, &c, may be referred ; together with such 
words as fama, triumphus, anchora, vestis, macldna, dexter, ago, 
lego, &c, &c, which form a large proportion of the language. 
III. But there still remains a class of words, which, if really of 
Greek origin, are evidently derived by a very different process. 
The maternal likeness is completely obliterated ; and the inquirer 
who would establish the relation must content himself with the 
indication of minute lineaments, in which few will be able to 
discover the parentage. Such are meta, lorica, clypeus, infula, &c, 
to which Mr. Valpy has assigned Greek primitives, but the 
derivation of which is evidently a very different matter from that 
of either of the former classes. 



1 Mr. Valpy has since published " a Manual of Latin Etymology," in which he 
has advocated the universal descent of Latin from Greek. 
2 " Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si 

Grseco fonte cadant, pared detorta." — Hot. Art. Poet. 52. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxiii 

As the Latin literature arose out of the commerce of Latium 
with Greece, the first class of these words appears even in the 
earliest literary fragments which have reached us ; no subsequent 
writers having drawn more unscrupulously on Greek sources than 
Ennius and Lucilius. But, in investigating the formation of the 
language, the consideration of this class may be altogether laid 
aside, as its origin and history are palpable. There will remain only two 
therefore only the two others for examination. challenge 

Latium lay between the territories of races which we, in the inquir - T - 
popular phraseology of antiquity, may designate Greeks and 
barbarians. The countries to the south were principally Greek 
settlements, though the Oscan language was extensively spoken in 
that region ; while the northern neighbours were of different 
descent. It is to these sources respectively, that the second and 
third classes of words composing the Latin language appear to be 
traceable. Of the Italian nations dwelling to the north of Latium, 
the most conspicuous are the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Oscans or 
Opicans; the two last of which were related, and are by some 
writers identified. The Sabines, too, who were early incorporated 
with the .Romans, were of kindred origin with the Oscan people. 
Whether the Siculi, Itali, or Yituli, were subdued by the Casci or 
Prisci, an Oscan tribe, and whether there is any foundation for 
the well-known legend of iEneas and his Trojans, are investi- 
gations which belong rather to the history of the country than that 
of the language. It is sufficient to observe that Latium, situated 
as it was between the territories of the Greek and barbarian, 
or semi-barbarian tribes, over-run by both in turn, 1 and at 
last peopled by different races, 2 naturally acquired a language 
partaking the idiom of its neighbours. It is evident, also, that 
peace and its arts were chiefly cultivated by the Greek portion of 
the people, while the remainder were principally distinguished for 
military prowess. The terms of husbandry and rural and domestic 
occupation are mostly Greek : aratrum, bos, ovis, agnus, sus, aper, 
eguus, cauls, sero, ager, sylm, vinum, lac, met, sal, oleum, &c. 

1 " Latium colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigines, 
Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurimci, Rutuli." — Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5. 

2 " Quum populus Romanus Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et 
unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat, corpus fecit ex membris, et in omnibus unus 
est." — Flor. iii. 

[r. l.] c 



xxxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Those of warfare, on the contrary, cannot be convincingly deduced 
from the Greek, and possibly are not Greek at all : arma, tela, 
cassis, ends, hasta, gladius, arcus, sagitta, jaculum, balteus, ocrea, 
clypeus, &c. Hence it has been concluded, that the wi-Greek 
element (as the German writers call it) was introduced by victorious 
invaders. This view also is countenanced by the un- Greek terms, 
referring to government and laws : as rex, civls, testis, jus, lis, 
vas, &c. &c. It also appears that the Greek was the primitive 
constituent of the Latin. The simplest ideas are Greek : as sum, 
sto, sedeo, cubo, salio, maneo, video, tango, ago,fero, volo, gigno, 
gnosco, memini, &c. The parts of the body are sometimes, but not 
always, evidently Greek. 1 This general view is aptly elucidated by 
the English language, the agricultural and rural terms of which are 
Saxon, as field, plough, ox, sheep, &c. ; while the legal are mostly 
Norman, as court, judge, law, parliament, &c. The conquerors, on 
this theory, did not come by sea, since maritime terms are usually 
Greek, as navis, prora, remus, &c. 

It must, however, be admitted, that a portion at least of the 
Italian population which was not Greek, was yet of Greek connec- 
tion. In one point of view, Mr. Yalpy's etymologies are strikingly 
remarkable. That he should have been able to make out, with any 
degree of plausibility, the entire identity of the Latin language with 
the Greek, is at least proof that there must be a Greek element in 
many of the Latin words, which do not belong to what we should 
call the Greek division of the language. And, indeed, there is no 
eminent Italian tribe, to which a Greek origin has not been 
ascribed by some writer or other. The enigmatical Pelasgians 
were as rife in Italy as on the opposite coast ; and Greek colonies 
swarmed along the maritime parts, whose influence on their more 
inland neighbours cannot but have been considerable. Olivieri is 
even of opinion that at one time the Greek language prevailed 
through the length and breadth of Italy. 2 If this was ever the 
case, it must have been such during Lanzi's " second epoch," " the 
mythological," or period when events belong to history, although 

1 Words relating to religion are commonly un-Greek. These may come from 
the Etruscans. 

2 " Essendo l'ltalia da ogni lato piena di Greci, chi mai creder potra che altra 
lingua si usasse in Italia fuor che la greca?" — Oliv., saggi dell' Accad. di Cort, 
II. 56 (apud Lanzi, saggio di Lingua Etrusca, I. i. 10), 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OE THE LATIN LANGUAGE. X xxv 

mingled with fable : for his first is before any records exist ; in his 
third, the Italian dialects, as migrations became fewer, and tribes 
more settled, began to assume the character of languages ; so that 
in this period the Latin language became distinct, though it was 
not cultivated ; and in his fourth it attained full development and 
cultivation, and, in literature at least, absorbed all the others. 

On the manifestly Greek portion of the Latin language it is 
unnecessary to dilate. The two languages are sufficiently well 
known to all persons of literature to need any detailed proof of f^jf^ 11 ^ 1 
their substantial identity. The alphabet is essentially the same. J; atl j? with 
Pliny tells us of a Delphic table of brass, extant in his time in the 
Palatine, dedicated to Minerva, with the inscription, in Eoman 
letters, " Nausicrates Tisamenu Athenaios anethece." 1 The primi- 
tive alphabet of the Romans contained only sixteen letters, 
ABCDEIKLMNOPQBST. Cwas commonly used 
for Gr, agreeably to its position, which corresponded with that of f; 
B stood for V ; P for F. According to Tacitus, Dionysius, and 
Hyginus, 2 this alphabet was brought from Arcadia by Evander. 3 
The declensions of substantives in both languages may be reduced 
to three ; and their identity is obvious, from the facility with which 
any word of either language falls into its proper declension in the 
other. The genders in both are three ; and the three declensions 
are in both repeated in the adjectives ; the first declension serving 
to designate the feminine in both, and the second, the masculine 
and neuter. The third declension in both embraces the three 
genders. In both, all neuters plural, substantive and adjective, 
end in a; and all neuters are alike in the nominative, accusative, 
and vocative. In both, the pronouns are all but identical. 
Is, ea, id, is 6s, fj (ea), 6; o being constantly Latinised by i, as 
in the genitive of the third declension, and the d being an 
old addition, as in Cnaivod for Cnceo. Nos and vos are found 

1 Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 58. The copies have the inscription in Greek letters; 
but this manifestly renders the passage unmeaning ; the purport of which is to 
show that Greek was formerly written in what was nearly the Roman character in 
Pliny's time. 

2 Pliny says : " In Latium eas attulerunt Pelasgi." — Hist. Nat. vii. 56. Diony- 
sius says : Ae-yovrcu ('Ap/caSes) 8e KaX ypafXjxdTcau e\\r]viKa>u XP^ aiv e ' s 'iTaAuw 
TrpwToi SiUKo/xiaai.— I. 36. See Tac. Ann. ix. 14 ; Hyg. Fab. 277. 

3 See the nature of the Roman alphabet discussed by Dr. Donaldson, Yarro- 
nianus, ch. vii. 

c2 



xxxvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

in the Greek duals v£L and acpwi. The irregular formations 
coincide. Thus in both languages ego gives me; and, although 
tu (ry, JEol.) gives te, not se, the difference is trifling ; while 
the t actually goes as far as the dative in the iEolic Greek. 
The auxiliary verb sum, however apparently differing, is really 
identical with elpL The prefixed s is a characteristic variety of 
the language, as in Inep, super; *£, sex; and numerous 
instances. 1 The u, which letter is peculiar to the Latin, is substi- 
tuted for all manner of Greek vowels. Thus unus comes from efs 
(eei/y, whence the German eiri) ; and hence we should have dp\, 
sumi, or, by aphaeresis, sum ; as lort, est. By applying this 
principle to the present tense of the verb, the identity is palpable. 

dpi, sum. flp.es, (iEol.) sumus. 

ds, es. f'ore, estlS. 

earl, est. %vri, (iEol.) sunt. 

Ero is the iEolic form for eaopai (eVo). So the iEolians said noip 
for nus, whence the Latin puer. The other forms in this verb not 
derivable from dpi, come from cpvco ; as fui, fueram, &c. The 
Latin regular verbs resemble the Greek more in their roots than 
their inflexion ; yet the substantial identity may still be traced. 
Th^ aphseresis explains many forms ; as legit, Aeyer-cu ; legunt, 
XeyovT-t (Mo\.) or Xiyowai. So, too, the dialectical insertion of r; 
as aralr^s, stares ; arrjuai, stare. Stans for aras is no variation, as 
is evident from the genitive o-tuvtos. The reduplication of the 
perfect is often found, as pungo, pupugi ; tundo, tutudi ; and 
although usually dropped, like the Saxon ge in the English, a trace 
of its existence is perceptible in the lengthened syllable, as in legi 
from lelegi ; veni from veveni. The prepositions and numerals are 
almost the same in both languages. 

But the substantial identity of the two tongues does not merely 
rest here. Beside the s, which is so commonly prefixed to Greek 
words, particularly as a substitute for the aspirate, the digamma, 
which was especially characteristic of the iEolic dialect, greatly 
influenced Latin words. Thus ovis is from 6ts (Mol. oFis) ; vinum 
from olvos {Mo\. folvos) ; ver from Zap, rjp (Mol. frjp). Again, as 
the iEolians changed <% into cprjp, the Latins made it /era; and as 

1 Mostly, it is true, in the place of the aspirate ; hut not always ; as in ottos, 
(ukos, -iEol.), succus. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxvii 

the iEolians changed 8 into j3 and X, so from Sis and ddKpvfxa, the 
Latins made bis and lacruma or lacrhna. H being changed by the 
iEolians into a, from <prjpr], v\rj (iEol. vXFa), we have fama, (sulva) 
sylva ; which last word contains three of the peculiarities of Latin 
derivation. Transposition, a well-known property of the iEolic 
dialect (as in Zevs, 28evs; Ccvykr}, a8evy\a), is common in Latin ; as 
from fj.opcf)r], forma; from o^Xos (Mol. Fox^os), vulgus. Neither is 
the Latin language exceptional to the general etymological rule, that 
in derivations vowels may be neglected ; for, though some vowels 
answer to others, as e to u, and o to i, yet often the transition takes 
place where there is no established affinity ; as \Oyxv, lAncea. 

From these particulars the mode of derivation from Greek into 
Latin may be generally understood and applied. Where these 
principles of exposition will not avail us, we must look to the 
supposed un-Greek element of the Latin language. One argument 
for the existence of such an element has been not merely the 
number of words which cannot be conveniently reduced to a Greek 
form, but also the consonantal sounds, E and J, which have no 
existence in the Greek. The former of these seems to have been 
especially Sabine. It will be found, however, that, even in this 
portion of the language, the Greek maintains a considerable 
influence. In examining the structure of the Etruscan, Umbrian, 
and Oscan languages, we shall virtually investigate all that is not 
directly Greek in the Latin. It is our imperfect acquaintance with 
these languages which alone leaves the question of an un-Greek 
element a problem. 

In our review of Latin poetry, remarks will be found on the 
supposed influence of Etruscan literature on that of Home. 1 Mean- 
time we may observe that the language of Etruria could not possibly Etruscan 

. • language. 

be other than influential. The Etruscans, in the early times of 
Roman history, were the most powerful and extensive of the Italian 
races ; they even had given a royal line to Eome. The regal 
insignia, the early constitution, the religious discipline, were 
Etruscan. The education of the Eoman aristocracy in Etruria 
must have still more extensively augmented the effect of the 
Etruscan language on that of Latium. It will be important, then, to 
examine, so far as that is possible, what the language of Etruria was. 
Of this we have numerous specimens ; they are, however, 

1 Page 12. 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 



Etruscan 

language. 



generally very brief, being merely contained on coins, gems, 
paterse, sepulchres, &c. ; in which last case the Etruscans present 
an honourable though unfortunate contrast to the prolixity of 
modern mourners. The most conspicuous and important monu- 
ment of the language is a stone pillar discovered at Perugia in 
1822, bearing an inscription, of which we append a copy : — 1 



Broad side. 
Eulat. tanna. larexul 
amefachr. lautn, felthinas. e 
st. la. aphunas, slel. eth. caru. 
texan. phusleri. tesns. teis. 
rasnes. ipa. ama. hen. naper 
XII. felthina. thuras aras pe 
ras. cemumlescul. xuoi. en 
esci epl. tularu 
aulesi felthinas arxnal cl 
ensi. thii thils cuna cenu e 
pic. phelic larthals aphunes 
clen thunchulthe 
phalas chiem phusle felthina 
hintha cape municlet masu 
naper srancxl thii phalsti f 
elthina but naper penexs 
masu aonina clel aphuna fel 
thinam lerxinia intemame 
r cnl felthina xias atene 
tesne eca felthina thuras tb 
aura helu tesne rasne cei 
tesns teis rasnes chiraths p 
cl thutas cuna aphunam ena 
ben naper cicnl barcutuse. 



Narrow side. 
felthinas 
atena xuc 
i enesci ip 
a spelane 
thi 2 phulumch 
fa speltbi 
renethi est 
ac feithina 
ac ilune 
turunesc 
unexea xuc 
i enesci ath 
umics aphu 
nas penthn 
a ama feltb 
ina aphun 
thuruni ein 
xeriunac ch 
a thii thunch 
ulthl ich ca 
cechaxi chuch 
e 



1 From Miiller's Etrusker. But the inscription as given by Dr. Donaldson, 
after Micali and Vermiglioli, differs in two particulars. 1. The words are differently 
divided. This is a question of criticism ; for, as we shall presently observe, the 
apparent divisions of words in Etruscan are nearly arbitrary. 2. V is written for 
F, Z for X, K for C. This is from the different value assigned by different 
scholars to the Etruscan characters. 

2 This, Donaldson. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxix 

It is obvious, at first sight, that the words are divided at JJJJJJJ 
the end of the lines, without any regard to syllabication ; and, it 
may be added, it is a well-known peculiarity of ancient Italian 
inscriptions that the breaks do not correspond always with the 
divisions of the words ; — a circumstance which greatly increases the 
difficulty of decyphering. Nothing can seem more entirely removed 
from Greek or Latin. Whether the Etruscan language be really 
alien from both we proceed to inquire. 

Herodotus is express for the derivation of the Etruscans, or 
Tyrrhenians, as the Greeks called them, from Lydia. In this 
opinion he is supported by the Etruscan traditions, 1 and by ail 
antiquity, till we come to the times of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 
who disputes the tradition, on the ground of its non-appearance 
in the work of Xanthus, the Lydian chronicler. How far this 
negative evidence should be permitted to weigh is a question rather 
for the political than the literary historian. Niebuhr accepts it, on 
account of " the complete difference of the two nations in language, 
usages, and religion," 2 mentioned by Dionysius. But such a 
distinction might well have existed so many ages after the migra- 
tion, and after both nations had experienced so many vicissitudes. 
Moreover, the distinction itself is questionable. Neither will 
Dionysius allow the Etruscans to have been Pelasgians, but con- 
siders them aboriginal Italians. The testimony of Greeks on 
questions of language is very dubious. They studied no tongue 
but their own ; and nothing but the splendour and influence of the 
Koman empire, the necessity of acquiring its language, and the 
profound deference which its literature exhibited to the models of 
Greece, preserved the Latin itself from being pronounced wholly 
barbarous, instead of partly ; from which latter imputation even all 
these considerations failed to rescue it. 3 When, therefore, Hero- 
dotus informs us that the Pelasgian language was " barbarous," we 
are not obliged to believe him further than that the Greeks did 
not understand that language in his time ; which would have 

1 See Tac. Ann. xiv. 14. 

2 Lectures on Rom. Hist. See Dion. Hal. Roman. Antiqq. i. 30. 

3 'Pcd/jlcuoi 5e (puvrjv fxku ovr 'aKpav fiapfiapov, ovr airr]pTicr^vo:s 'EAActSa 
(pOeyyovTCu, [xikt)]V Se Tiva e| afxcpOLV, fis iarlu r\ irXeiwv AloAis. — Dion. Hal. 
A.R.i. 90. 



Xl INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

langn^J. applied equally to the Latin. Neither does he speak confidently. 1 
Certain it is that when Dionysius affirms that the Etruscan 
language differed from every other, he is not borne out by the little 
that can be interpreted of its remains. It is true that it recedes 
far more widely from the Latin than the other dialects ; nor does 
the Perugian inscription exhibit the smallest similarity to Latin or 
Greek in the form of its words ; but there is scarcely an Etruscan 
word, of which the meaning is ascertained, which is not traceable to 
one of those languages ; while even the Perugian stone exhibits the 
Greek and Latin peculiarity of cases (felthina, felthinas, felthinam ; 
aphunas, aphunam), and several of the words closely resemble 
Umbrian words, which have an acknowledged affinity with the 
Latin. Niebuhr mentions anil ril, which he translates vixit annos, 
as an instance of the entire difference of the Etruscan from the 
Latin and Greek. These words are found sometimes together, some- 
times singly, on funeral monuments, and always before a number, 
the compass and variety of which leaves no doubt that it indicates 
the age of the deceased. But there is no necessity of translating 
these words in the precise terms of Niebuhr. Both are 
probably abridged, 2 like the Mb. and Ob. on modern tombstones, 
and the vix. and ami. on ancient. Moreover, it is acknowledged 
that no abbreviation was more common in Etruscan than the 
omission of vowels; and Lanzi's 452nd example is marked in full, 
aivil. ril, 3 where the former word is manifestly a compound of 
alfav, or cevum (anciently aivom), and might have stood for cevilis 
(as juvenilis, senilis, &c), or somewhat analogous. As regards 
Ril, " it is true that this word does not resemble any synonym in 
the Lido-Germanic languages ; but then, as has been justly observed 
by Lepsius, there is no connection between annus, IVoy, and idr, 
and yet the connection between Greek, Latin, and German is 
universally admitted." 4 Dionysius, doubtless, would not have 
recognised in the word Aecse. which is inscribed over the repre- 
sentation of a horse, the Greek tWos or Latin equus ; and, probably, 

1 "Huriva 8e yXwo-cav ticrav oi IleAacryo], ovk exu arpeKeas eXireiv el 8? 

Xpecbu i(TTi TeKjxaipojxevov \4yew fiaav oi Uehaayol fiapfSaprr 

yXcbaaav iei/res. — Herodot. Clio, 57. 

2 Avi occurs occasionally, which. of course, a further abbreviation. 

3 Lanzi, Saggio, iii. 19. 4 Donalds. Van-on. v. J, 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xli 

the most expert of modern philologists would have been equally Etruscan 
unsuccessful in investigating the meaning of that word, had not the 
undoubted key existed on the gem. Yet the derivation is agreeable 
to every rule of analogy. The iv is changed into k, and the aspirate 
dropped, in the iEolic dialect. Hence "Ikkos. The vowel, as all 
etymologists acknowledge, is unimportant in derivation. The 
vowels a e, therefore, in the place of i, present no difficulty. All 
the rest is strictly agreeable to the clearly-ascertained rules of 
Etruscan word-building. A double consonant was never used by the 
Etruscans, at least in writing ; and the terminations os in Greek, 
and us in Latin, were regularly by them exchanged for e. Hence 
aece would be a regular Etruscan conversion of the Greek "unros. 
But the s still remains to be accounted for. The insertion of this 
letter, however, is strictly analogical. The Etruscans wrote Lusna, 
Asna, Thasna, Aspa, for Luna, Annia, Thannia, Appia. 1 Nor is 
the word equus, unlike as it is to the Greek and Etruscan, of any 
other parentage. "Ikkos would become icus or ecus in early Latin ; 
for the Eomans, like the Etruscans, did not anciently double 
their consonants. The change of c into qu is scarcely to be 
accounted any at all. At all events, it was most frequent; as 
Quirites from Cures, Quirinus from Curls, &c. &c. The position of 
the Etruscan towards the other languages of Italy, and towards the 
Greek, was, probably, not unlike that of the French 2 towards the 
other languages of Latin parentage, and towards the Latin itself; 
far less resembling the mother than did the other daughters, and 
therefore retaining far less of the common family expression. A 
Frenchman is fully as unintelligible to an Italian as he is to a 
Eussian; yet the French and Italian languages have scarcely a word 
which is not of common derivation. And thus the Etruscan language 
may have been, as indeed it would appear, of Greek descent, 3 and 
Latin kindred, though not so appearing to a Greek or Roman who 
had not studied it. 

1 So ahesnes in the Umbrian for ahenea. In old Latin casmcence was used for 
camcenae, osmen for omen, Sec. — Varro, vi. 76. 

2 Aecse differs not more from equus than jour from dies. Yet tlie latter relation 
is demonstrable beyond a doubt. From dies we have diurnum [spatium] ; hence, 
dioimo, giorno, journie, jour. 

3 We may observe that the Etruscan works of art bear a close resemblance to 



xlii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Etruscan That the Komans regarded the Etruscans as barbarians l arose, 



language, 



no doubt, from the dissimilarity of the languages ; as, in other 
respects, the Etruscans could boast of an earlier cultivation, and 
were to Kome, at one period, so far as that was possible, what 
Greece itself was at another. 2 

We will now endeavour briefly to trace the character, so far as 
the limits of this work allow, of this mysterious language. 
According to Tacitus, the Etruscans derived their alphabet from 
Demaratus of Corinth; 3 but, whencesoever they received it, it is 
unquestionably of Greek derivation. They appear, however, to 
have had fewer sounds than the Greeks. They had but eighteen 
letters (for the K and C we consider equivalent). They rejected 
the hard mutes, B, G, D, for which they substituted P, K, T. 
Z and were also rejected. 4 They retained the digamma. They 
wrote commonly (Bovo-Tpocprjbov, beginning from the right to the 
left. All the letters were reversed when the writing ran from left 
to right. Yowels were frequently, but not always, omitted in 
writing ; and there was no settled orthography ; — two circumstances 
which have greatly contributed to the difficulty of investigating the 
language. When words ran into each other in popular pronunciation, 
they were often written as one — a practice familiar also to the Latin. 

The Etruscan article appears to have been Tas (or Tu), Ta, Tu ; 
these before vowels became simply t ; or, where the vowel was 
aspirated, sometimes th. Over a representation of Mercury we find 
Turms ; evidently Tu Herms, or perhaps Tu Hermes, as the latter 
vowel is probably omitted. Were the Greek masculine article to, to 
"Epnijs would assuredly, if contracted at all, become 6ovpp.rjs. Thana 

the Greek, and that Greek persons and legends are represented on them. The 
following inscription, found on a vase at Cervetri, the ancient Agylla, is manifestly 
in hexameter verse : 

Mi ni kethuma, mi mathu maram lisiai thipurenai : 

Ethe erai sie epana mi methu nastav helephu. 
We give Dr. Donaldson's arrangement of the -words, hut the rhythm does not 
depend on it. 

1 " Fite causa mea, Lydi barbari." — Plant. Curcul. 1. ii. 63. 

"An vos, Tusci ac barbari, auspiciorum Pop. Rom. jus tenetis, et interpretes esse 
comitiorum potestis?" — Tib. Gracch. apud Cic. de Div. ii. 4. 

2 See under " Etrurian Literature" in Ante-Augustan Poetry, p. 12 of this 
volume. 3 Ann. xi. 14. 

4 Some critics, however, as we have seen, consider the letter commonly taken 



.aiiguage. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xliii 

stands for Ta Ana, the name written by the Eomans Annia ; the i Etruscan 
was possibly pronounced in Etruscan, though not written. Tular " 
stands for Tu Via?' {pilar, locus ollarum ; as Bostar, locus bovium). 
Hence possibly Rasena (the name by which the Etruscans called 
themselves *) may be identical with TYPSnNot, the Greek name : 
(tu RaseNa). 

The principal masculine terminations appear to have been a and 
e ; the latter very frequent in proper names, and, as we have 
remarked, corresponding to the Greek os, or Latin us. J and u are 
sometimes found ; 2 and tJi, as Larth, Arnth ; if these be not 
abbreviations. The feminine termination was probably a, but is 
rarely written; thus JElinei, Phasti, Rauntu, may be rendered Helenea 
('EXevela, or 'EAe'^), Eaustia, Eantua. So Capv for Capua. A common 
neuter termination was u. The genitive of e was es, us, u or ei ; that 
of a appears to have been as (purely Greek), ai (old Latin), or e (new 
Latin ; the Etruscans rarely using diphthongs. The dative of e 

for X to be a Z. We give the Etruscan alphabet, in which all the languages of 
Italy, with slight variation, except (as it would seem) the Latin, were originally 
written. 



Lat. Etr. 

a IK A 


Lat. 

N 


Etr. 

i n 


c > >\ 01 


P 


1 


E 3^3 


R 


qa<] 


y ^] 


S 


M \z 


PH <s e % a cd 8 


T 


t f Y 


H a a 


U 


V Y 


TH © <3> 


X 


* =i 


I I 


CH 


* 


l 4 V 

m >*\vi m 


B 
Z 


^ 1 Not pure 
f Etruscan. 


1 Dion. Hal. i. 30. 





2 Probably contracted forms : as Marcani for Marcanie. The Latin vocative 
in i, as Antoni, is a contracted form for ie. 



xliv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Etruscan was ti added ; answering to the Latin o, which the Etruscans had 

language. ° . ..... 

not. Also si is sometimes apparently a dative termination, like 
the cf)i of the Greek. We find the accusative puiam {Fvlav, Jiliam, 
or puellam l ). The ablative is thought to have been formed by the 
addition of ac, me, or sa. But it is more probable that at least 
the two latter of these were prepositions affixed, as mecum, tecum, &c. 
So nomneper in the Umbrian, which termination is also found in the 
Etruscan naper. The plural nominative ended in ai, like the old Latin ; 
contracted, perhaps, occasionally, into a ; unless this be an instance 
of the vowel omitted. So Rasena. The genitive was probably urn. 
Idibus was in Etruscan Itipes, and on a patera we find chusais, 
probably a dative plural from cJiusa, a libation. This is as much as 
can be said with any probability of the Etruscan declensions. 
Lanzi confuses this part of his subject by mingling with it Umbrian 
inflexions, which, however, closely resemble the Etruscan, as we 
shall presently have occasion to observe. 

The following are some specimens of proper names : a gem, with 
a figure holding a harpe, or crooked sword, in one hand, and a head 
in the other, is marked Pherse, manifestly for Perseus ; on another, 
five chiefs in council have their names circumscribed Tute, Phulnices, 
Amphtiare, Atresthe, Parthanapae ; who are, no doubt, five of 
the seven anti-Thebans, Tydeus, Polynices, Amphiaraus, Adrastus, 
and Parthenopseus. We find Pele for Peleus; Atre for Atreus, 
Menle for Menelaus ; Achniem for Agamemnon ; ElcJisntre for 
Alexander (Paris) ; Addle, Achele, and Aciles for Achilles ; Uluxe 
for Ulysses (where we have the same deviation from the original 
'obvaaevs as in Latin) ; Aivas {k'lfas) for Ajax (where the Greek 
type is retained) ; Theses and These for Theseus. The names of 
divinities are mostly of Greek or Latin character : Jupiter was 
Titta (Dis, Ditis), or Tina, probably for Tinia, as sometimes 

1 This interpretation is rejected by Miiller, Etrusk. Beileg. zu. B. ii. k. 4. 16. 
There is little doubt, however, that Lanzi's 191st inscription," Mi Kalairu phuius," 
is to be rendered " Sum Calairi filii." Dr. Donaldson gives Elfil KaXcupov fui6s.* 
But the termination us is genitive in Etruscan : besides, in inscriptions of this 
kind, the genitive seems more commonly used, as Mi Larthias. See infra. Nor 
is Lanzi's interpretation of thui by filia to be rejected merely because it sometimes 
6tands at the beginning of words, as by Miiller, ubi supra. 



* Varronianus, ch. v. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. x lv 

found (Zevs, Zrjvos) ; Yenus, Thalna l (Ta Halna, or, perhaps, Etruscan 
Halina, the vowel being omitted in writing, fj aXiva), or Turan 
(Ta Uran, rj olpavid) ; Diana, Thana (Thiana, i omitted as before, 
or Theana, from &6s, as Diana from Dius) ; Yulcan, Set/dans ; 
Apollo, Aplu, Epul, Uflicre, or ApuUi; Bacchus, Phupluns ; 2 Minerva, 
Menerfa, Menirva, or Menerve ; Mercury, Mircurios, 3 or Turms 
(Tu Herms, 6 "Epfirjs) ; Hercules, Herkle, or Herkole ; Neptune, 
Nethuns ; Pluto, Mantus ; Proserpine, Mania ; the two last mani- 
festly Latinised, but exhibiting the same root as Manes ; which is 
also found in the Etruscan Summanus (sub Manibus), the god of the 
night. As this treatise is purely philological, we do not enter on 
those parts of Etruscan divinity which present no comparative 
etymologies. The terminations al, isa, ena, about which much has 
been written, but nothing decided, appear to be patronymics, 

1 Dr. Donaldson makes Thalna Juno, -whom he also designates, after Strabo, 
Kupra. Cuprus meant good in the Sabine language,* whence Cupra sbould seem 
to be Dea bona, as indeed Dr. Donaldson acknowledges ; and therefore Cybele or 
Proserpine. On a patera f representing the birth of Minerva, the word Thalna is 
inscribed against a goddess whose symbols are the dove and myrtle-branch. Thana 
may possibly have been used for Juno, the derivation favouring it. 

2 See Donalds. Varron., v. 10. Lanzi makes Bacchus Tinia ; but the juvenile 
figure with a thunderbolt, which he takes for Bacchus, may be Vejovis. In the 
patera representing the birth of Bacchus, the word Tinia, which Lanzi there 
refers to Bacchus, is clearly inscribed over Jupiter, while Bacchus himself has no 
inscription. The worship of this deity was imported from Greece ; (see Livy, 
xxxix. 8) and, though extensive, was " superficial " J in Etruria. Vertumnus, the 
god of the changes of the year, and its productions, consequently of wine, seems 
to have anciently supplied the place of Bacchus to the Etruscans. The Latinised 
Etruscan termination tumnus, tumna, we may here observe, may possibly be 
identical with dominus, domina ; as Vertumnus, vertendi dominus ; Voltumna, 
volgi dornina. But it is generally supposed that umnus is equivalent to Sfievos, 
or efMevos. It is remarkable, however, that, in proper names of divinities, the 
t generally precedes. Another etymology is suggested by the lines of Propertius, — 

At mihi, quod formas unus vertebar in omnes, 
Nomen ab eventu patria lingua dedit : 

as though' the derivation were from verto and unus. If so, umne, or une was 
probably one. 

3 Words containing the o are late, or not pure Etruscan. 



Varro de Ling. Lat. v. 159. + Lanzi, Taw x. 1. 

X Oberfl'achlich, Miiller, Etrusk. III. iii. 12. 



xlvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Etruscan metronymics, or derivatives. Thus as aivil (ad avum per linens) 
seems to have the same character as juvenilis, senilis, &c, (ad 
juventutem, senectutem per linens), so Larthal or Larthial (ad Lartem, 
or Zarlhiam, perlinens) appears to have the form of Martialis (ad 
Martem per linens). The Latin terms cervical, tribunal have a like 
substantive reference to other substantives. Isa and ena may 
correspond to the iaa-a and ivr) of the Greeks in signification, as 
they undoubtedly do in form — Tarchisa seems the feminine o 
Tarchun (Tu Archun, 6 apx^v), 1 as PaalXio-aa from fiaaikevs. Of 
numerals, it seems likely that clan or clen stood for primus ; eter 
(erepos) is almost certainly alter or secundus ; and other numerals 
appear to have answered to the Latin words. Festus, on the word 
Quinquatrus, observes, that the Tusculans called the 3rd, 6th, and 
7th days from the Ides, Triatrus, Sexatrus, and Septimatrus, and 
the Faliscans called the 10th Becimatrus? But the words are, 
doubtless, Latinised. 

We have but slight means of ascertaining the character of the 
Etruscan verb. Under statues, the form mi Larthias, or mi cana 
Lartliias, is found. ElpA, with the genitive of the person represented, 
was a common inscription on Greek statues : so that mi Lartliias 
may be rendered dyX AapBias, sum Lartia. Cana is equivalent to 
X^vu, interpreted by Hesychius /coV/ino-i? 4 a word synonymous with 
aydkpa, which is often used by the Greeks for an image. Tece, on 
the statue of Metellus, appears equivalent to 6^kc (eOrjue, for 
avi6r)Ke, a form common in Greek votive inscriptions). Turce seems 
used for donavit, the first portion of the word being equivalent to 
the Greek Scop, in a language which used t for d, and u for o. 3 

1 Tarchon, according to antiquity, was a son or brother of Tyrrhenus, the founder 
of the Etruscan nation. But it is remarkable that Verrius Flaccus and Caecina 
call him Archon, in passages -which Miiller corrects into Tarchon.* The correction, 
however, was not needed. The reading results from the omission of the Etruscan 
article. It is, however, right to state that Tarchun, according to Miiller, is the 
Etruscan form of Tvpprjvos. Yet in Flaccus and Csecina the two names are 
distinguished. 

2 Fest. in voc. See Varro de L. L. vi. 14. 

3 Niebuhr would have Turce to mean Tuscus ; a good derivation as to analogy, 
but scarcely applicable to the context. 



* Etrusker. Einleit. ii. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 



xlvii 



The following Etruscan words, gleaned from ancient authors, gems, Etruscan 
paterse, funeral monuments, &c, will sufficiently show how far 
the authority of Dionysius is to be respected in regard to the 
" barbarism " of the language : and serve to qualify the bold 
assertion of Niebuhr, that this authority is " but too strongly con- 
firmed by all our inscriptions, in the words of which no analogy 
with the Greek language, or with the kindred branch of the Latin, 
can be detected, even by the most violent etymological artifices ; " 1 
and elsewhere: c: Wemaysay with certainty that the Etruscan 
has not the slightest resemblance to Latin or Greek, nay, not to 
any one of the languages known to us, as was justly remarked 
by Dionysius." 2 True indeed it is that the Etruscan, as viewed in 
the gross, appears to bear little relation to other languages ; but 
wherever it has been possible to detect its meaning, its connection 
with Latin and Greek is commonly apparent. 



Aecse — equus, (itacos). 

Agalletor — puer, (dydWoficu). 

Andas — Boreas. 

Antar — aquila, (cie-ros). 

Aracos — accipiter, (lepal-, Upaitos). 

Arimoi — simiae. 

Arse — ignem, (ardeo). 

Ateson — arbustum. 

Atentu — habeto, (teneto). 

Aukelos — aurora. 3 

Cana — decus, imago, (xdva). 

Canthce — deposuit, (Karidrjice). 

Capra — capra. 

Capys — falco, (KafiTrrcc). 

Carescara — x a P L(TT VP ia - 



Cehen, probably eveicev. 

Cfer — puer. (p and q are constantly 
interchanged; cf is the Etruscan 
q. So Cfenle — Quinlius. The 
derivation may be from nHpos; 
or from ic6'ip for ir&ip, iEol. for 
irais.) 

Chausais — inferiis, (x6acus, iEol.) 



Esar — Deus ; and N/esar. 

Eter — secundus, alter, (erepos). 

Eth, etfe— ivi. 

Falandum — ccelum. 

Februu m — puri fi catio. 

Fis, fia — filius, filia. 

Gapos — currus. 

Buster — histrio, (IcrToop), 

Ituo — divide 

Itus — idus. 

Lanista — carnifex, (lanio). 

Lar — Dominus. 

Leine, line. (An inscription on 

sepulchres, possibly leniter, sc. 

ingredere, or it may be loculus : 

Xrjvos). 
Lupu — loculus, (Aoirds). 
Lusna— luna. 
Mantisa — additamentum. 
Mi — sum, (ii/j-i). 
Nanos— erro. 

Nepos — prodigus, (nepos). 
Peithesa — fides, {iteiQia, whence too 

fido). 



1 Rom. Hist., Tuscans or Etruscans. 

2 Lectures on Rom. Hist. v. 

3 This word is evidently Grecised. The authority is Hesychius. 



xlviii 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 



Etruscan 
language. 



Ofecan 
language. 



Phanu — fanum. 

p, , r Votum. (No satisfac- 

t,, ,,, J tory Gr. or Lat. etymo- 
Phlfres i , T ., „ J . 

Phlexr gy ' Zl S °$ Kri<TLS 1S 

*- very forced.) 

Phruntac — fulguriator. 

Puia — filia (Lanzi), (Fuid). 

Ril. (Apparently a contracted form 

of some word signifying 

Etym. uncertain.) 

Subulo — tibicen. 

Suthil 1 

>■ ccarripiov. 
Suthur J IP 

Tapi — sepultura, (racprj). 



Tece — posuit, (e^/ce). 

Tunur — honori, (Tu unur, t# honori). 

Turses— mcenia, (turris). 

Tuthines — quicunque, (o'l [roi] rives). 

Threce — redeine. 

Thui, or thuia — filia, (Ovia, 7/ [to] via). 

Thupitaisece — vttot46cik€. 

Verse — verte. (Propertius, who gives 
a long account of Vertumnus 
(iv. ii.) and the various occasions 
from which his name was popu- 
larly derived, makes no doubt of 
the etymology a vertendo, or of 
the root being Etruscan.) 



The Opican or Oscan language was extensively spoken over the 
middle and southern portions of Italy ; Latium itself was included 
in Opica by Aristotle. 1 It was the language of the Samnites, 
Campanians, Lucanians, Bruttians : it was spoken by the Mamer- 
tines of Messana ; and the Sabine language, though not the same, 
had mingled with it : 2 and the Samnites, who were of Sabine 



1 Tbv tottou' tovtov TTJs 'Oirt/fTjs, ts /faAeiTot Aarwv. — Aristot. apud Dionys. 
Halic. Rom. Antiq. i. 72. 

2 " Sabina usque radices in Oscam linguam egit." The following Sabine words, 
collected from various authorities, will show the affinity of the language to the 
Latin, and (partially) to the Greek : — 



Alpus 




albus. 


Hern a 




saxa. 


Ausum 




aurum. 


Idus 




idus. 


Cascus 




antiquus. 


Lepesta 




vas vinarium. 


Catus 




acutus. 


Lixula 




circulus. 


Ciprus (or 


cuprus) 


bonus. 


Nar 




sulfur. 


Creperus 




dubius. 


Salus 




salus. 


Cumba 




lectica. 


Scesna 




ccena. 


Cupencus 




sacerdos. 


Strena 




sanitas. 


Curis 




hasta. 


Tebae 




colles. 


Embratur 


(a Latin 


imperator 


Terenus 


(r4pr]v) 


tener. 


word corrupted). 




Tesqua 




locasentibus repleta, 


Fasena 




arena. 


Trabea 




trabea. 


Februum 




purgamentum. 


Trafo 




traho. 


Fcedus 




hcedus. 


Vefo 




veho. 


Fircus 




hircus. 


Verna 




verna. 



From the above examples it is evident that an h for an/, or an r for an 8, would 
often convert a Sabine word into Latin, and the forms and character of the words 
suggest a dialectical Latin. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xlix 

descent, spoke it. 1 It was thus brought into immediate contact Oscan 
with Home. The Atellane plays, of which notice will be found in anguaf 
our chapters on Latin poetry, were acted in this language ; and, 
being intended for popular amusement, could scarcely have been 
very unintelligible at Eome. Some German scholars, as Munk 2 
and Klenze, 3 have contended that the Atellane plays were always 
in Latin ; contrary to the express testimony of Strabo, who, as Ave 
shall see when we come to that part of our subject, speaks of Oscan 
plays acted in his time periodically at Eome. To this competent 
witness it is not sufficient to reply, as Munk has done, that the 
Oscan language was unintelligible at Kome in the time of Augustus, 
on the ground that, as Horace and Quinctilian 4 attest, even the 
learned were unable to interpret the old Latin; and that the 
Bantine table contains a Latin translation of the Oscan, for the use 
of the Eomans, who did not understand the latter. True enough 
it may be that the Oscan language was unintelligible to the learned 
of the Augustan day ; but this is anything but an a fortiori 
argument for its unintelligibility to the vulgar. The literary and 
conversational Latin was quite an artificial language, and probably 
differed more from the Latin of the common people than did the 
Oscan itself. As to the Bantine table, the argument from that 
altogether fails, as the Latin and Oscan are not antigraphs, as is 
shown by Klenze himself. The main difference between the Oscan 
and the Latin was dialectical ; a difference, however, progressively 
enlarged by the great opposition in the habits of the races by whom 
they were respectively spoken. The Oscan language comprises the 
larger portion of the un-Greek element, as it is called, of the 
Latin ; and, whether this term be just or otherwise, certain it is 
that the Oscan receded considerably from the Greek. This was 
natural in a people whose minds and occupations appear to have 
been as opposite as possible, even to a proverb, to the intellectual 
character of the Greeks ; for the term Ojpicus was used emphatically 
for ignorance of Greek, and antipathy to it. 5 The Oscans were dull, 

1 Liv. x. 20. = De Fabb. Atell. 

3 Zur Geschichte der Altitalischen Volkstamme. 

4 Hor. Epist. II. i. 56. Quinct. I. vi. 40. 

5 Aul. Gell. xi. 16; xiii. 9. So Juv. iii. 206 :— 

Jamque vetus Grcecos servabat cista libcllos, 
Et divina Opici rodebant carmina mures. 
[R.L.] d 



1 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Osean sensual, and, emphatically, barbarous. Indeed the word Opicus 

in Latin implies something more than barbarus. "Nos quoque 
Grasci barbaros, et spurcius nos quam alios, Opicos [al. Opicorum] 
appellatione fcedant" says Cato. 1 Festus derives the name of 
the nation ab oris fceditate; a ludicrous etymology, but exhibiting 
the common idea of contempt and disgust with which the Oscans 
were regarded by educated Romans. With such sentiments, 
and with the profoundest veneration for Greek taste and litera- 
ture, which the Oscans did not care to understand, the Romans, 
as matter of refinement, continually receded further from Oscan 
forms. 

The principal monuments of this language now remaining to us 
are, some vases from Nola in the museum at Berlin ; an inscription 
found at Messana, in Greek letters ; another found in Campania ; 
several at Herculaneum and Pompeii ; a stone table in the ruins of 
Abella, in Oscan letters ; and one of brass at Oppidum, in Latin 
letters. This last is the most important, and is commonly known 
by the name of the Bantine table. 

The Oscan alphabet did not materially differ from the Etruscan 
in form, nor from the Latin in amplitude, when the Latin 
alphabet was employed, as was often the case, in writing this 
language. 2 But, in the latter instance, the Q, was wanting. Vowels, 
as in Etruscan, were sometimes omitted ; but the writing, when in 
Latin or Greek Letters, was commonly from left to right ; and the 
orthography, if we may apply the term, was coarser and more 
careless than the Etruscan ; as might be expected from an illiterate 

1 Ap. Plin. N. H. xxix. 27. 
2 The principal differences were as follow: — 

Lat. Osc. Lat. Osc. 

an p n 

PH % 6 R fll 

TH rj z x 

I r 1 

N V\ 



language. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 

nation. The words were even strangely run into each other, as Oscan 
is frequent in the writings of uneducated people : hence arise 
difficulties in the interpretation. Nevertheless, by the light of the 
Latin, some idea may be formed of the language. 

The Bantine table is, perhaps, the least unintelligible of the Oscan 
documents. As a specimen, we give a part of the 3rd chapter, as 
it is called by Grotefend, with his version : those of other scholars, 
as Klenze and Dr. Donaldson, differ, as might be expected. Some 
of these variations we shall notice. 

Pr. svse profucus, 1 pod post exac Bansse fust, svse pis 
Porro si prsetexuerit, quod posthac Bantise fuerit, si quis 

op eizois com atrud[iac]ud acum herest, avti pru 

ob hsec cum fraudulento homine 2 agere volet, atque pro 

medicatud manimasepum eizazune egmazum, pas exaiscen 

compensato mancipium idem exquirere, cujus ex istis 

ligis scriftas set, nep him pruhipid mais zicolois X. 3 

legis scriptse sit, neque eum repetat magis (quam) judiciis X. 

nesimois. Svse pis contrud exeic pruhipust, molto etanio 
continuatis. Si quis contra in isto repetierit, multa justa 

estudn. Q) in svse pis ionc meddis moltaum herest, licitud; 
esto n. M. et si quis eum magistratus multare volet, liceto ; 
ampert mistreis 4 alteis eituas moltas moltaum licitud. 
una cum magistris altis serarii multae multare liceto. 

Prom this passage it will be seen that there is considerable 
obscurity in the remains of the Oscan tongue which antiquity has 
spared to us. The principles of this language, so far as they are 
known, we shall consider in conjunction with those of the Umbrian, 
to which it bears a close affinity. A vocabulary would almost 

1 Klenze renders Prcetor sive prcsfectus. Grotefend takes prcefucus for 
prcefucust, prcetexuerit, from fuco, to disguise. 

2 tL Comatrudiacud should perhaps he rendered fraudulenter ; so com preivahtd, 

privatim; hut Dr. Donaldson gives atrud ud, and renders atro . . . . o, 

concluding, apparently, that a whole word is lost. The letters iac are less distinct, 
indeed, but seem quite unmistakable. 

3 Klenze renders ne quern prohibeat magis siculis decern. 

4 Klenze renders ampert mistreis by per minisiros. 

d 2 



lii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

oscan require the transcription of the Oscan remains ; a task equally 

unsuited to our objects and our dimensions. 

Umbrian " 

langunge. One of the most ancient and genuine races of Italy was the 

Umbrian. 1 Their city Ameria dates 381 years before Rome. Their 
territory extended at one time over a part of Etruria. Their 
language, therefore, must be regarded as one of the constituents of 
the Latin. We have larger means of investigating the nature of this 
tongue than we possess in regard to the Etruscan and Oscan. In 
the year 1444, nine brazen tables were discovered in a subterranean 
vault in the neighbourhood of the ancient theatre at Gubbio, the 
ancient Eugubium or Iguvium. Two of these were conveyed, in the 
year 1540, to Venice, and have never been recovered ; the remaining 
seven are still in existence. Of this number, two are in Latin 
characters ; the remainder in Umbrian, which do not differ im- 
portantly from the Etruscan alphabet. These last are earlier than 
the others, and are referred by Lepsius to about the end of the fourth 
century u.c. ; the others he places about the middle of the sixth 
century. In this period the language had undergone alteration, 
owing, doubtless, in part, to the advancing influence of the Latin ; 
we may, therefore, consider it under the designation of Old and 
New Umbrian. 

The declensions of substantives and adjectives are tolerably 
weil ascertained. The Eirst contains the feminine nouns, and is as 
follows : 



1 " Umbrorum gens antiquissima Italise existimatur, ut quos Ombrios a Graecis 
putent dictos, quod inundatione terrarum imbribus superfuisseiit. Trecenta eorum 
oppida Tusci debellasse reperiuntur." — Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 19. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 



liii 



Umbrian 
language. 



£ $ $ 



S a ^ 

O © <3 

£ O ft 



5 S 



§ d d -*= --h 

O o <D d ^5 
fc ^ O ft < 



%a 



.Si 2 





"3* 


o g 




•-3 


^ Q- 




gi=? 




S-< 


^ ^ a 


is 


o 
a 


.a § | 




> 


O p jr-s 




o 


H? O M 




W 






o 


J ^ j 




o 


9 q o 



* 



fe 




P3 
















^ 


















h- 1 

pq 






s 9 
11 








g 






P 




CO 








n a 












1?" 

■+3 ~ 




5 




c3 O 
S3 M 








C 




1? 




pi 


o 

"> 

*«-3 


- 
■8 

o> 


e8 








c3 O 


V 


- 


<1> 


c3 S3 




- 




























S S3 




S 


= 


Ed 







I - 

2 3 



o a 




a d d -+3 •— * d 
o o o cs ^3 o 

& |> O ft <I < 



liv 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 



Umbrian 
language. 



The identity of this declension with the first of the Latin, and 
with the corresponding declension of the Greek, is palpable. 
Where it differs from the former, it falls back upon the latter. 
The genitive is purely Greek. The ai of the Oscan dative 
singular, and the e of the Umbrian, are the original <u and rji of 
the Greek, afterwards contracted into a and rj. The ais of the 
Oscan dative plural, and the es of the Umbrian, are the Greek ais 
and us by similar analogy. The v in the Oscan form is the Greek 
digamma. 

The Second declension corresponds to that of the Latin in us and 
Greek in os for masculines, and Latin in um and Greek in ov for 
neuters. The masculines sometimes undergo a change in the 
nominative, as by the rejection of the penultimate u : as Ikuvins for 
Ikuvinus, an Eugubian. When, after this process, t and s concur, 
they coalesce in z. So pihatus, pihats, pihaz. In the later Umbrian, 
this az becomes os. When t and I or r concur, the termination us 
is rejected, and an e is interposed. Katlus (catulus), katl, katel. 
So in the Oscan, Bantins for Bantinus, Pumpaians for Pumpaianus 
(Pompejanus), hurz for hurtus, &c. Thus from aypbs the Latin 
agrus, agr, ager. The neuter declension (in um, om t im) only 
differs from the masculine in having the nominative, accusative, 
and vocative alike in both numbers, and forming those cases in 
the plural in a or u. 





UMBRIAN 




OSCAN". 




Old. 


New. 
SINGULAR. 


Terminations. 


Norn. 


pupel? Ikuyins 


popel ? 


rel, m. (Famel) 




(the Eugubian 
people) 


H 


us, m. (Ziculus) 
Bantins (for Bantinus) 
um, n. (sakaraklum) 


Gen. 


puples Ikuvines 


popler 


eis (Abellaneis) 


Dat. 


puple 


pople 


ui (Abellanui) 


Voc. 


puple ? 


pople 1 




Ace. 


puplum 


poplom 


om (dolom) 


Abl. 


puplu 


poplu 


ud (Abellanud) 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 



Iv 





UMBRIAN 




Umbrian 
OSCAN. language 




Old. 


New. 


Terminations. 


Nom. 
Voc. 


>■ puplus 


PLURAL. 

poplor 1 


J" us, m. (Abellanus) 
I u, n. (teremenniu) 


Gen. 

Dat. 

Abl. 


puplum 
> puples 


poplom um (Abellanum) 

reis (mistreis) 

, . . uis (Abellanuis), or 
popl-er, -lr, -eir •! . \ '' 

] ois (in more modern 


Ace. 


pupluf 


poplof"? 


v. forms) 

J* uf (tribarakkiuf. Qro- 

1 tefend) 



The cnaracteristic termination of the Third declension is i ; but 
there are many rules which dispense with it, unnecessary to 
introduce here, when we are merely investigating the sources of 
the Latin language. This declension comprehends all the genders : 
the neuter nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike, as in 
Greek and Latin. The other nouns are thus declined : 



Nom 
Voc? 



s.{ 



Gen. 
Dat. 
Ace. 
Abl. 



ocar 



UMBRIAN. 

Old. New. 

SINGULAR, 
ukar (for ukri), a hill. 
The Lat. arx, Gr. 
aKpa 

ukres ocrer 

ukre ocre 

ukrem ocrem 

ukri ocr-i, -e, -ei. 



>] 



OSCAN". 

Terminations. 



eis 
ei 
im 
id 



Nom, 

Voc. 

Gen. 

Dat. 

Abl. 

Ace. ukref 



/. ukres 
arvia, arviu 



. "1 m 
1 J n - 

V ukres, -is 



PLURAL. 



ocrer 
arvio 



term, om (peracniom) 

ocres, -is, -eis is (ligis, legibus?) 

ocr-ef, -if, -eif eis 



The Fourth Umbrian declension corresponds to the fourth of the 
Latin. It contains the three genders. The nominative ends in u* 
There is no example of this case, however, in the word here selected. 
Manu (?) signifies hand. 



INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 



Umbrian 
language. 




UMBRIAN 








Old. 


New. 




Norn. 




SINGULAR. 




Gen. 


manus 


manor 




Dat. 


manu 


mano 




Ace. 


marram 


manom 




Abl. 


mani 


mani 



There are two other forms, manve and man/, the reference of 
which is uncertain ; but they are probably dative and accusative. 

plural. OSCAN. 

)■ term, us, as berus Feihoss. Qrotef. 

Abl. J 

Ace. m. „ uf, as kastruvuf 

n. „ a, as berva ; term, o, as pequo. 

The following, in the form of the Fifth and last Umbrian declen- 
sion, embraces all the genders : — 

UMBRIAN. OSCAN. 

Old. New. 

SINGULAR. 

Nom. 1 t , / , > . kvaistur, medix, med- 

Y kvestur (qucestor) questur , ' ' 

Voc. ] J dix, meddiss 

(magistratus) 

Terminations. 

Gen. kvestures questurer eis (medikeis) 

Dat. kvesture questure ei (medikei) 

Ace. kvesturu questuru im (medicim, N. 0.) 

Abl. kvesture questure id (prcesentid, N. 0.) 

PLURAL. 

(We are here obliged to collect examples from different nouns.) 

Nom. tuderor (from tuder) 

Gen. fratrum fratrom (from frater) 

a ' i- fratrus fratrus 

Abl. J 

Beside these forms, there are, in Umbrian, two locative cases, as 
they are called, which are the same in all declensions : but they 
rather seem to have affinity with the Greek postfixes 6i or at, as 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lvii 
ovpav60L, 'fkiodi, 'Adqvrjat, ; and be Or £e, as o'Uovbe, Mapa8a>va8e, X°H- a £ e > SlSge. 

A6yva(;e : so tutemem Ijovinemem, " in the whole of the Eugubian 
territory," or, "in the city of Eugubium," as before; tutamem Ijovina- 
mem, "to," or "into," &c. The termination /m is used in the plural, 
and in the sense of rest only. The m is sometimes rejected ; but 
the laws of its rejection are unimportant here. 

The numerals, as far as known, are unu, one; dur, two; thus 
declined : 





Masc. 


Fern. 


Neut 


Nom. 


dur (K U.) 




tuva 1 ? 


Dat. 


duir „ 




tuves ] 


Ace. 


duf „ 


tuf 


tuva 


Abi. 




tuve 


tuves 



Tri. three, thus declined : 





Masc. and Fern. 


Neut. 


Norn. 


tri 


trija ? 


Ace. 


tref, tre, trif, treif 


trija 


Abl. 




tris 



Four is petur (neropes for reaaapes, iEol. 1 ) ; six, se ; nine, nurpier; 
ten, desen? Of the personal pronouns (Umbrian and Oscan), we 
have meJie (N. U.), mihi; Horn, or tio (N. U.), tiu (0. U.), te; 
tefe, tibi; seso, sese ; titer, tuus ; vestra, vestra. The demonstrative 
pronouns are erek, ere (0. U.), erec, ere, eront (N. XL), idik (0. 0.), 
izic (N. 0.), answering to the Latin is; esto, to iste ; eso (N. U.), 
eznm (N. 0.), to hie; ero, to ille ; eno and Jio, only found in 
conjunctional and adverbial forms ; poe, poi, or poei (N. U.), qui ; 
the p, both in Umbrian and Oscan, answering to the Latin q ; (so 
plsipumpe, quicunque). In the Greek dialects, in like manner, 
it and < are interchanged : so 71-77, ttoctos, iroios, ku, Koaos, ko7os. 
Hence, too, \vkos, lupus, o-kvXov, spolium, &c. In this respect the 
Oscan was often nearer than the Latin to the Greek. 

The auxiliary verb es (esse, thai) is thus conjugated, as far as 
we have examples : 

1 Hence petonitum. 2 Hence, Dsen, Zen, Zehn, Germ. 



lviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. 



Umbrian 
language 




UMBRIAN". 








Old. 


New. 




Pres. Ind. 


Zrd. sing, est 


3rd. sing, est 

Zrd. pi. sent, sont, isunt 




Pees. Pot. 


Zrd. sing, si 


2nd. sing, sir, si, sei 
Zrd. pi. sins 




Inf. 


eru 


erom 



The auxiliary yerbfu (fuisse, cfrvvai) is thus found : 

Pres. Pot. Zrd. sing, fuia 

Fut. Ind. Zrd. sing, fuiest (Lanzi refers to this tense the 

forms eront, eriJtont, erahwnt, 
erefont, erarunt, ererunt. The 
German philologists regard 
them as pronouns.) 

Fut. Perf. Ind. Zrd. sing, fust fust, fus 

Zrd. pi. furent 2nd. sing, futu 

Imp. Zrd. sing, futu 2nd. pi. fututu 

The following fragments of verbs give some, though an imperfect, 
idea of their conjugation. They are arranged according to the 
analogous conjugations in Latin. The active and passive are 
distinguished by the corresponding Latin affixed : 



© 

© 



00 

© © 






m 6 



-3 

eh * 

H 

H 

If 

M 
O 






© o o 

© S-i 5h 

h o o 





So § 



£ 





13 

6 


| 


B 






-P* 


ca 




m 


«2 









s 


a 




© 


© 






.Q 


.Q 


-to 

CO 














> oo 








5h O 








5° ^ 




t) 


I 






£ 


1 


EH 




8 


icatio 


5 







i— i 


H 


,Q 




CH go 


h 


c3 




ps cc 


s 


^3 




^3 


-F 






03 O 


Pm 






*"• 75 


1 








p 






>4 


H 




^ — •* 


H3 £? 


£ 





"S 


« .s 




£ 


lO 


4) * 




m 


8 

<< 


^ 1 




I 




1 








£,-=* 








C3 ^ 








43 fl 








en £ 








o £ 








J3.s 



d 

"6" 

■ft 






^3 

o 

•s g 



AS 



^ i-H N M t— I <N CO 



'S 





Jh 










s 




D t> 








*-*— » 










3 










(1 




d £ 








02 


'2 


a 






o 

u 

03 
















o 

-2 








02 fi 

2 2 


43 

a 


-t3 
i 

a 






43 














43 


o 








'S "'S 


03 


03 




















'o' 


















I 

o 

-1-3 


-1-3 

a 

43 












t) 


id 

d 




C3 

a 
a 














Oh 
g 

o 


Jo 


t3 










o 
o 

Eh 
ft 


HP 

00 

03 
02 




"3 

02 

Fh 

03 
















gH 


d 
















§ 
















eg 

oT 
"3 

• t-l 

-4-3 
5-H 

c3 


03 

1 








h 
S 




Id 

d 




i 

8h 
IS 

a 


■4 




f 

id 3 

d^ 




1 




m 


Ph 


«3 

02 












-u 




05 


EH 




m 


j 




l 


< 
Ph 


15 


Ph 


-^ 










03 




03 


Eh 


ft 




1 


■a 

So 

a 




i 

a 


fi 




P3 


"a 








" 




a 

'3 

w 

03 

ft 

3 






3 


a 




a 


Ph 
P3 


o 

-4-3 /->. 

-4J 

en r^ 


Ph 

! 


8 

1 


d 


ft H 

Ph 

S 

1— 1 




e 

►fii 






i 

ft 




8 

8 






eg 

-*3 

'o 

a 


Ph 


13 1 

.5 <! 




.5 
3 




(a 

0Q 


tj 






a 






id 






02 

o 


_2 


S h3 


p 


id 








d 






"3 






d 






g 


03 

-+3 

JH 

ft 


*H G 




03 


P 






43 






03 
ft 

J? 






1 






S 
& 






o 




o 






,— " 






J 

a 

02 
ft 




























o 
















1 










c3 


c3 
































► <3 


eh 


K 

< 

ft 


m 




C8 
3 








t 






id 










■*5 03 

c3 t» 


o 


1 










s 






^ 










S "-5 




EH 


43 




s 








&H 
















C3 "^ 


Ph 


D 
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SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 



lxi 



The Umbrian prepositions (which the Oscan closely resemble) are, Umbrian 
with their Latin exponents, as follows : O is old Umbrian ; N, new. anguas 



Ar (0.), ad 

Ehe, eh, eso, sese, tefe (N.), e, ex 

Eine, eno, in 

Eis, ejs 

Hiitra (0.), hondra (N.), infra 

Karu (0.), coram 

Kum,ku(0.) | 

Com, co (N.) J 

Per, pro. (Generally post-fixed, as 

pupluper, pro popido.) 
Perse, persei, persi (N".), irepll 
Pune (0.), ponne, poui (N.), pone ? 



) )post 



Post (NT.) 



Pustin, pusti (0.), posti (N\), jp*o 

Pre, ante, pro (prce in composition) 

Sei (IS".), a& (the se of composition, 
as in segrego) 

Subra (N.), surur, supra 

Sopa, sub 

Tra (0.), traf, trahaf, traha (NT.), 
trans 

Tu (0.), to (N\), ab. (It seems the 
word which enters peniato, divi- 
mtus, ccelitm, &c, which words 
are compounded quite after 
the Umbrian fashion.) 

Upetu, ob, propter 



The compositional prepositions are an (0.), dva or in; «»z3, amp?' 
(0.), aj»#r (N.), ainbi, d/zc/u ; all (0.), a, aZ:<z, (N.), a, ab; anter(0.), 
ander (N.), inter; en, in; «j9, «« (0.), os (1ST.), ob, obs, os ; pru 
(0.), pro; pur, por (as in porricio) ; ?*£, re; sa5 3 sub; vm, t?e^, ve, 
perhaps as ve in vecors. 

An Umbrian vocabulary would involve the transcription of the 
Eugubian tables ; a task altogether irrelevant to the object of a 
treatise on the history and sources of the Latin language. By 
extracts from those tables, we shall, perhaps, give a better idea of 
the Umbrian language, and its connection with Latin and Greek. 
The interpretation is, in great measure, conjectural. It must be 
remembered that Tota Ijovina may be rendered civitas Iguvina. 



From the Yth table (0. U.) : 

Jupater Sabe tephe estu vitlu vuphru sestu : purti 
Jupiter Sabe ! tibi istum vitulum rubrum sisto : vitulum 

(nopTana) 

phele trijuper teitu trijuper vuphru naratu : pheiu 

lactentem : pro tribus dictis(?) pro tribus rubris die : facio 
(fellantem) (narrato) 

Juve patre vubijaper Natina Eratru Atieriu. 
Jovi patri pro vubia Arnatina Eratrum Ateriathnn. 



lxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

umbrian From the Vlth table (N. U.) : 

Di Grabovie tiom esu bue peracrei pihaclu ocreper 

Di Grabovi! macte esto bove opimo piaculo pro arce 

(rto/xei/os eVo) TpeYaKpa (pro sacrificio, Lanzi) 

Fisiu totaper Ijovina erer nomneper erar 

Fisio pro tota Iguvina (terra) pro marium nomine pro foeminarum 

(eorum) (earum) 

nomneper. 
nomine. 

Di Grabovie salvom seritu ocrer Fisier totar Ijovinar 

Di Grabovi! salvam servato arcis Fisii [et] totius Iguvinae 

(terrae) 
nome nerf arsmo veiro pequo castruo frif salva seritu 
regionem opes . . arma 1 viros pecus oppida * salva servato ; 
(yofiov) (nervos) (eastra) 

futu fons paser pase tua ocri Fisi tote Ijovine erer 

sis bonus, favens pace tua arci Fisio toti Iguvinae marium 
(cj)veT(d) (pacificus) 

nomne erar nomne. 

nomini foeminarum nomini. 2 

From this investigation it would appear that, from the Alps to 
the Strait of Messina, the languages spoken when Eome arose were 
either purely Greek or of kindred origin and form. The roots are 
discoverable in Greek or Sanscrit, in which latter tongue philologists 
have traced unquestionable analogy, both in substance and form, to 
the old Italian dialects. Latium, as a point where the territories of 
several races met, would naturally exhibit a compounded language ; 
and, if the universal tradition be true which represents Eome in its 
infancy as the asylum of fugitives from all parts, the language of 
that city might be expected to prove more miscellaneous even than 

1 According to Dr. Donaldson, however, arsmus is sacerdos. 
2 i, e. maribus et fceminis. So nomen Latinum, &c. Dr. Donaldson renders 
illius nomini, hujus nomini, the meaning of which is not very clear. But er 
and ar, as we have seen, are the terminations of the gen. sing, of the 2nd and 1st 
declensions respectively, and answering therefore to the masculine and feminine. 
We should have used the pronoun ille in both places, if the genitive singular had 
admitted the distinction of genders. 



language. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxiii 

that of the province. But, as all the elements were kindred, it umbrian 
easily subsided into a compact and uniform texture, particularly ansuage * 
when it became refined, enriched, and polished by an ampler infusion 
of Greek. 

In investigating the early Latin, we are met by several difficulties. Latin 
The orthography is altogether unsettled; the specimens, when tran- 
scribed, have suffered in the process ; the language itself, as might 
be expected, is fluctuating. The earliest specimen we possess is 
the Hymn of the Pratres Arvales, dug up at Eome in the year 1778. 
This poem was attributed to the times of Eomulus. Though of 
the highest antiquity, it was not, probably, inscribed on the stone 
which contains it till the time of Heliogabalus ; it is scarcely 
possible, therefore, that it should not be much corrupted. The 
reader will perceive in it several letters which did not belong to the 
primitive alphabet. There is no division in the words ; the division 
which we give, however, is that which is generally received : — 

ENOS . LASES . IWATE 

NEVE . LVERVE . MARMAR . SINS . INCVRRERE IN PLEURES . 

SATVR . PVFERE . MARS . LIMEN . SALI . STA . BERBER . 

SEMVNES . ALTERNEI . ADVOCAPIT . CONCTOS 

ENOS . MARMOR . IVVATO . 

TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE. 

Each of these lines is repeated thrice ; and the uncertainty of the 
orthography is manifested in the repetition. For Lueeve is 
substituted Lu^ ; for Maemae, Maema ; for Sins, Sens ; for 
Pleoees, Pleoeis and Pleoeus; for Pufeee, Pueeee; for 
Semtjnes, Simtjnis ; for Limen, Lumen ; for Sali, Sale ; for 
Maemoe, Mamoe. The interpretation is very uncertain. Perhaps 
no two scholars are actually agreed on it. We subjoin that of 
Klauser : — 

AGE, NOS, LARES, JUVATE, 

NEVE LUEM, MARS, SINAS INCURRERE IN PLURES. 

SATUR FURERE, MARS. PEDE-PULSA LIMEN. 1 STA VERBERE. 

SEMONES ALTERNI ADVOCABITE CUNCTOS. 

AGE NOS, MAMURI, 2 JUVATO. 

1 Better perhaps, limini insili. Dr. Donaldson gives, lumen solis sta : " put 
a stop to the scorching heat of the sun." 

2 There is no question that Mamurius was celebrated in the end of the Salian 
Hymn : but perhaps, both there and here, the name signified Mars ; when, 



lxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Latin Lanzi renders pleores by flores, and satur fufere by ador fieri ; 

Limen sali sta he makes pestem (Xv^x-qv) sails sisle. But the whole 
is necessarily very uncertain and obscure. The Salian Hymn, which 
dates nearly up to the same period, and a few words of which have 
been preserved by Varro, 1 was extant in the time of duinctilian, 
who informs us that it was scarcely understood by the priests who 
sung it ; 2 and Horace declares it was unintelligible to him, and 
ridicules the antiquaries of his day who affected to praise what they 
could not understand. 3 It is nothing wonderful, therefore, 
that correct interpretations of these early and corrupt remains 
should be absolutely impossible. 

Royal laws. The next example is given by Festus, under the verb plorassit. 
It is taken from the royal laws, and perhaps is as old as the second 

however, it became less understood, a legend was contrived to explain it. According 
to this, Mamurius was the artificer of the shields made to imitate the ancile, 
that it might not be stolen from the temple ; 

" Cui Numa munificus, ' Facti pete praemia,' dixit : 

' Si mea nota fides, irrita nulla petes.' 
(Jam dederat Saliis — a saltu nomina ducunt — 

Armaque, et ad certos verba canenda modos.) 
Turn sic Mamurius : ' Merces mihi gloria detur. 

Nominaque extremo carmine nostra sonent.' 
Inde sacerdotes operi promissa vetusto 

Praemia persolvunt, Mamuriumque vocant." — Ov. Fast. iii. 383. 

To whom thus generous Numa : "Ask of me 

Thy meed; my word was never pledg'd in vain." 
(The bard had given the Salian company 

Their arms, and language of their sacred strain.) 
Spake then Mamurius : " Guerdon me with fame, 

And let my name conclude your solemn lays." 
The priests assent, and ratify the claim, 

And still their songs resound Mamurius' praise. 

1 De Ling. Lat. vi. 1 & 3. " Romanorum prima verba poetica." — vii. 26, 27. 
The longest fragment is the following, which scholars have attempted to explain, 
but with so much obscurity and uncertainty, that we shall not endeavour to follow 
them ; especially as the passage has no doubt suffered greatly by transcription : 
" Cozenlodoizeso omina vero ad patula coemisse jam cusianes dionusceruses 
dunzianus vevet." 

2 " Saliorum carmina vix sacerdotibus suis satis intellecta." — Quinct. I. iii. 4. 

3 Ep. ad Aug. 86. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. l xv 

century of Eome. We give it, with an interlinear modern version, Latin 

language. 

where requisite : — 

Sei parentem puer verberit, ast oloe plorasit, puer diveis 
Si verberaverit, ille ploraverit diis 

parentum sacer esto : si nurus, sacra diveis parentum esto. 

diis 

Here we possess at once what is evidently Latin, and intelligible. 
The form plorasit belongs to the analogy of the Umbrian fust, l e. 
fusit, for fuerit. But it may be doubted whether this passage has 
not been considerably modernised, especially as a treaty between 
the Komans and Carthaginians, of much later date, was with 
difficulty intelligible by the learned in the time of Polybius. 1 Several 
other specimens of very early Eoman laws exist, but their very 
intelligibility sufficiently proves that they have been modernised by 
those who have quoted them ; and they are consequently of little 
value for the purpose of philological illustration. 

The laws of the Twelve Tables, which have been amply quoted, The Twelve 
have been left for the most part more in their original words, and 
consequently are more illustrative of the progress of the language. 
They belong to the beginning of the fourth century of Kome. The 
passages, though not lengthy, are numerous, and some portion of 
each table is extant. We subjoin a law from the Xth table : — 

Qui coronam parit ipse pecuniseve 2 ejus virtutis ergo 
ipsi(?) 

arduitor et ipsi mortuo parentibusquejus, dum intus positus escit 
addatur parentibusque ejus erit, 

forisque fertur sefraudesto, neve aurum adito. Ast sicui auro 
sine fraude esto addito sicubi 

dentesvincti escint, im cum ilo sepelire ureve sefraudesto. 

erint, eum illo urereve sine fraude esto. 

1 Polyb. iii. 22. 
2 " Who gains a crown to himself or to his property; " i. e. as Lanzi explains it, 
who gains a crown by any meritorious act of his own, or by means of his 
property, e.g. of his horses at the public games. 

3 s for r, as usual in the Italian languages, and the c added. 
[r. l.] e 



lxvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Latin The next authority, but more important, because uncorrupted by 

transcription, is a Senatus consultum, assuring the Tiburtines that 
the Senate did not distrust, and had not distrusted, their loyalty. It 
was found inscribed on a bronze table at Tivoli, in the XVIth cen- 
tury. It is now lost, but has been transcribed by Niebuhr from 
Gruter's copy, as follows : 



1. L. Cornelius Cn. F. Praetor Senatum consuluit a.d. III. nonas 

Maias sub sede Kastorus ; 

2. Scribendo adfuerunt A. Manlius A. F. Sex. Julius, Lucius Post- 

humius S. F. 

3. Quod Teiburtes verba fecerunt, quibusque de rebus vos purga- 

vistis, ea Senatus 

4. Animum advortit, ita utei sequom fuit ; nosque ea ita audi- 

veramus 

5. Ut vos deixsistis vobeis nontiata esse ; ea nos animum nostrum 

6. Non mdoucebamus ita facta esse propter ea quod scibamus 

7. Ea vos merito nostro facere non potuisse ; neque vos dignos 

esse, 

8. Quei ea faceretis, neque id vobeis neque rei poplicse vostrse 

9. Oitile esse facere ; et postquam vostra verba senatus audivit, 
Utile 

10. Tanto magis animum nostrum indoucimus, ita utei ante 

11. Arbitrabamur de eieis rebus af vobis peccatum non esse 

12. Quonque de eieis rebus Senatuei purgatei estis, credimus vosque 
Quumque 

13. Animum vostrum indoucere oportet, item vos populo 

14. Romano purgatos fore. 

This is an extraordinary advance, being indeed far less archaic in 
its form than some later specimens. 

We come next to the inscription on the column of Duillius in the 
Capitol. The original monument was erected to commemorate 
his naval victory over the Carthaginians, u.c. 494 ; but that which 
at present exists is a restoration, probably of the time of Claudius. 
It seems, however, to have been carefully done, and presents 
perhaps a better specimen of archaic Latin than any we have 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxvii 

adduced. It is imperfect, and the italics show the parts supplied Latin 

by Lipsius : — ^nguage. 



Lecionm ^aximosque macestratos . . . casteris exfociunt 
Legiones magistratus castris effugiunt 

( i. e., effugant, 
effugere faciunt) 

Macellam pucnandod cepet; enque eodem macestratod prospere 
pugnaudo cepit; in que magistratu 

rem navebos marid consol primos ceset, clasesque navales 
navibus mari consul primus gessit, classesque 

primos ornavet cumque eis navebous clases Poenicas omnes 
primus ornavit iis navibus classes Punicas 

paratisumas copias Cartaciniensis prsesented maxumod 
paratissimas Carthaginienses prsesente maximo 

Dictatored olorum in altod marid ipucnandod vicet . . . . , 
Dictatore illorum alto mari pugnando vicit 

naveis cepet cum soceiis septemr 1 triresmosque naveis 

naves cepit sociis septiremes triremesque naves 

X X depreset. Aurom captom numei <5) Q ($) DCC. 
depressit. Aurum captum nummi M M M DCC. 

Our next authorities are more valuable, as being inscriptions of 
the time. The mausoleum of the Scipios was discovered in 1780. 
The first of these inscriptions dates rather earlier than the original 
inscription on the Duillian column, and it is the earliest original 
Eoman philological antiquity of assignable date which we possess. 
But the other epitaphs on the Scipios advance to a later period, and 
it is more convenient to arrange them all together. The earliest of 
these inscriptions then runs thus : — 

Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus Cnaivod patre prognatus, 

Cnseo 

fortis vir sapiensque ; quojus forma virtutei parisuma fuit. Consol 
cujus virtuti parissima Consul 

1 We supply esmos. 

e2 



lxviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Censor Aidilis quei fuit apud vos. Taurasia, Cisauna, Samnio 
iEdilis qui Taurasiam, Cisaunam, Samnium 

cepit; subicit omne Loucana opsidesque abdoucit. 
subegit omnem Lucaniam obsidesque abduxit. 

The next inscription, which dates about u. c. 500, is more 
archaic than the foregoing : — 

Hone oino ploirume cosentiont E 1 duonoro optumo 

Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Eomani bonorum optimum 
fuise viro, Luciom Scipione. Filios Barbati Consol Censor 
fuisse virum, Lucium Scipionem. Filius Consul 

Aidilis hie fuet a 2 Hec cepit Corsica Aleriaque urbe. 

iEdilis fuit Hie Corsicam Aleriamque urbem. 

Dedet Tempestatebus aide mereto. 
Dedit Tempestatibus sedem merito. 

We come next to the end of the sixth century of Borne. The 
epitaph is that of the son of Scipio Asiaticus. 

L. Corneli L. F. P. n. Scipio. Quaist. 

Lucius Cornelius Lucii Films Publii nepos Quaestor 

Tr. Mil. annos gnatus XXIII. mortuus. Pater 

Tribunus Militum natus 

regem Antioco subegit. 
Antiochum 

The epitaph on the younger Cornelius is as follows : 

L. Cornelius Gn. P. Gn. N. Scipio magna sapientia 
Cnaei Pilius Cnsei Nepos 

multasque virtutes setate quom parva posidet hoc 

quum possidet 

(*. e. quamquam) {or possedit) 

saxsum. Quoiei vita defecit non honos honore. Is hie situs 
saxum. Cui honeste. 

quei nuncquam victus est virtutei. Annos gnatus XX is 
qui nunquam virtute. natus 

Romani or Romanoi. 3 Apud vos. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxix 



t . . eis mandatus. 
terris. 


Ne quairatis honore quei minus sit Latin 
quseratis honorem qui language 


manda . . .' 





There is a difficulty in the grammatical construction, owing, 
perhaps, to the unsettled condition of the language. Lanzi con- 
strues sajpientia as the archaic accusative governed by posidet, 
which the undoubted accusative virtutes appears to sanction. But 
how, then, are we to construe hoc saxsum, which would appear to 
be the accusative after posidet? 

The remaining epitaphs of the Scipios are in clear, intelligible 
Latin. That of Cn. Scipio Hispanus concludes with four elegiac 
verses. 

The Lex Silia de publicis ponderibus, passed tj. c. 510, and the 
Lex Papiria de Sacramento, belonging to the following year, cited 
by Pestus, are almost Augustan Latin ; but they have, no doubt, 
been modernised. 

The Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, passed in u.c. 568, 
and found at Terra di Teriolo, in Calabria, in 1640, is quite in its 
original state. It is, however, perfectly intelligible, and can 
scarcely be said to differ from classical Latin, except in orthography. 
We subjoin it entire, as it is a very complete and important 
specimen of the language. 



SCTUM DE BACCHANALIBUS. 

Line 1. [Q,.] Marcius L. F.S.Postumius L.P. Cos. senatum consol- 
uerunt N. Octob. apud aedem 
nonis 

2. Duelonai. Sc. arf. M. Claudi M. P. L. Valeri 

Bellonae. Scribendo adfuerunt 
P. P. Q. Minuci C. F. de Bacanalibus quei foideratei 

3. esent ita exdeicendum censuere : neiquis eorum Sacanal 

Bacchanal 
habaise velet ; sei ques 
qui 

1 Mandatus. 



lxx INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Latin 4. esent quei sibei deicerent necesus ese Bacanal habere, eeis 

language. A 

necessum 
utei ad pr. urbanum 

5. Eomara venirent, deque eeis rebus ubei eorum v tr a 

verba 
audita esent utei senatus 

6. noster decerneret, dum ne minus senatoribus C. adesent 
[quom e] a res cosoleretur. 

7. Bacas vir ne quis adiese velit ceivis Eomanus neve 
Bacchas adiisse 

nominus Latin [ i ] neve socium 
sociorum 

8. quisquam nisei pr. urbanum adiesent, isque de senatuos 
sententiad dum ne 

9. minus senatoribus C. adesent quom ea res cosoleretur jou- 
sisent. Censuere 

10. sacerdos ne quis vir eset magister neque vir neque mulier 
quisquam eset, 

11. neve pecuniam quisquam eorum comoinem habuise velet 
neve magistratum, 

12. neve pro magistratuo neque virum neque mulierem 
quiquam fecise velet, 

quisquam 

13. neve post hac inter sed conjourase neve comvovise neve 

se 
conspondise 

14. neve conpromesise velet, neve quisquam fidem inter sed 
dedise velet ; 

15. sacra in oquoltod ne quisquam fecise velet, neve in poplicod 

occulto 
neve in 

16. preivatod neve exstrad urbem sacra quisquam fecise velet, 
nisei 

17. pr. urbanum adieset isque de senatuos sententiad dum 
ne minus 

18. senatoribus C. adesent quom ea res cosoleretur iousisent. 
censuere 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxxi 

19. Homines pious V. oinversei virei atque mulieres sacra ne Latin 

. . language. 

universi 
piisquam 

20. fecise velet neve interibei virei pious duobus mulieribus 
interea 

)lous tribus 

21. arfuise velent nisei de pr. urbani senatuosque sententiad 
adfuisse 

itei suprad 

22. scrip turn est haice utei in coventionid exdeicatis ne minus 

conventione 

nnum 

23. noundinum senatuosque sententiam utei scientes esetis eorum 

24. sententia ita fuit : sei ques esent quei arvorsum ead fuisent 
qui adversum 

mam suprad 

25. scriptum est eeis rem caputalem faciendam censuere, 
itque utei 

26. hoce in tabolam ahenam inceideretis ; ita senatus aiquom 
ensuit ; 

27. uteique earn figier joubeatis ubei facilumed gnoscier potisit 

facillime possit 

atque 

28. utei ea Bacanalia sei qua sunt exstrad quam sei quid ibei 
acri est 

29. ita utei suprad scriptum est in diebus X quibus vobeis 
tabelai datai 

30. erunt faciatis utei dismota sient in agro Teurano. 

Tauriano. 

The Latin Bantine inscription is attributed by Klenze, 1 with 
sufficient historical grounds, to the middle of the seventh century of 
Borne. 

We present what he calls the two first chapters, with the 
conjectural supplements in italics. 

Line 1. ... e . in poplico joudicio nesep 

1 Philologische Abhandlungen, Das Altromische Gesetz. 



lxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Latin 2. ... o . neive quis mag. testimonium poplice eidm sinitoi 

language. _ . ' 

oiewontian 

3. . . . dato neive is in poplico luuci i pra3textam neive soleasl 
habeto neive quis 

4. m^. prove mag. prove quo imperio potestateve erit ^weiquomquel 
comitia conciliumve habebit eum sufragium ferre nei sinito 

5. sei quis joudex queiquomque ex hace lege plebeive scito factus 
erit senatorve fecerit gesseritve quo ex hac lege 

6. minus jiant quce fieri oportet quceve fieri oportuerit oporte- 
bitque non fecerit sciens d. m. 2 seive advorsus hance legem 
fecerit 

7. gesseritve sciens d. m. ei multa esto eamque pequniam quei 
volet magistratus exsigito ; sei postulabit quei petet pr. recu- 
peratores 

8. dato .... facitoque eum sei ita pareat condumnari popul. 
facitoque joudicetur sei condemnatus 

9. fuerit ut pequnia redigatur ad Q 3 urbarc. aut bona ejus 
poplice possideantur facito. Seiquis mag. 4 multam inrogare volet 

10. apud populum dum minoris partus 5 familias taxsat liceto 
eique omnium rerum siremps 6 lexs esto quasei sei is hacce lege 

11. condemnatus fuerit. 

We have thus traced the monuments of ancient Eome into the 
times of literature. The principal difference which they present 
from the cultivated Latin are the Oscan ablative in id, od, ed, and 
an accusative, which afterwards became the regular ablative. This 
latter peculiarity has been thought to have been perpetuated in the 
colloquial language, and to have re-appeared in the Italian. Of the 
Latin language, considered apart from its literature, we have slight 
means of judging during the Augustan period, and for some 
centuries after. The African writers produced a distinctive dialect ; 
but this is no more to be regarded a natural phase of the language 
than the Latinisms of our Caroline writers are a specimen of the 
current English of their day. The agminatim, diutule, longule, 
postremissimus, pcenissime, cachinnabilis, famigerabilis, of 

1 Luci, luce, interdiu. 2 dolo male-. 3 Quaestorem. 

4 magistratus'. 5 partis. 6 Eadem. 



SOURCES AND "FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. Ixxiii 
ipuleius, and his affected use of nouns of multitude (totum ejus Latin 

lciU2Ti3.2'6. 

wrvitium Mlares sunt, he.) are, perhaps, to be compared with the 
ndocile, conducible, &c, of our own Isaac Barrow. But the abundant 
use of the termination alls, the substitution of de or a with the 
ablative for the genitive, the formation of verbs in are, as gypsare, 
mediare, &c, may be regarded as invasions of the vulgar tongue on 
the literary, or as indications of a degenerating language. Ordi- 
narily, a literature would be the best criterion of its language ; but 
this rule is by no means applicable to the Latin, which was 
altogether an artificial tongue, cultivated by literary men on the 
model of the Greek, and very different from the colloquial dialect. 
There was a " lingua nobilis, classica, urbana" and a "lingua plebeia, 
vulgaris, rustica" The latter, corrupted by the Gothic invasions, 
and by the native languages of the other parts of the empire, which 
it only partially supplanted, became eventually distinguished from 
the Lingua Latina (which was now cultivated, even by the learned, 
only in writing) by the name of " Lingua Bomana." It accordingly 
differed in different countries. The purest specimens of the old 
Lingua Eomana are supposed to exist in the mountains of Sardinia 
and in the country of the Grisons. 

Some examples of the corrupted language shall conclude this 
portion of our subject. 

The following inscription of the Yth century is not dissimilar 
in style from those which remain to us from the infancy of the 
language : 

Hie requiescit in pace domna Bonusa quix ann. XXXXXX et 
domina quae vixit 

Domno Menna quixitannos .... Eabeat anatema a Juda 
Dominus qui vixit annos Habeat anathema 

si quis alterum omine sup. me posuerit. Anatema 
hominem super Anathema 

abeas da trecenti decern et octo patriarche qui chanones 
habeas de trecentis patriarchis canones 

esposuerunt et da sea Xpi quatuor Eugvangelia. 

exposuerunt de Sanctis Christi Evangeliis. 

We have next an instrument written in Spain, under the govern- 



lxxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE 

Latin meni of the Moors, in the year 742, a fragment of which we take 

language. . 

from Lanzi. The whole is given by P. Du Mesnil, in his work on 
the Doctrine of the Church. 

Non faciant suas missas nisi portis cerratis ; sin peiter 

seratis ; sin (minus), solvant 

decern pesantes argenti. Monasterie quae sunt in eo 

nummos Monasteriae 

mando . . . faciunt Saracenis bona acolhensa sine vexatione 
faciant vectigalia ? 

neque forcia ; vendant sine pecho tali pacto quod non 
aut vi tributo 

vadant foras de nostras terras, 
nostris terris. 

The following is the oath of fealty taken by Lewis, King of 
Germany, in a.d. 842 : _ 

Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro comun 
Dei amore Christiano populo nostra communi 

salvament dist di enavant in quant Dis saver et podir 
salute de isto die in posterum quantum Deus scire posse 

me dunat; si salverat eo cist meon fradre Karlo et in 

donat ; sic (me) servet ; ei, isti meo fratri Carolo, 

adjuaha et in cadhuna cosa si cum om per dreit 
adjumento qualicunque causa sic quomodo homo per rectum 

(i. e. jure) 
son fradra salvar distino ; quid il mi altre si 

suo fratri salvare destino ; quod ille mihi ex altera (parte) sic 
fazet; et abludher mil plaid nunquam prendrai, qui 

faciet ; ab Lothario nullum consilium unquam accipiam, quod 

meon vol cist meon fradre Karlo in damno sit. 

mea voluntate isti meo fratri Carolo damnum 

We have already stepped beyond the limits of what is strictly 
the Latin tongue, and especially of the Latin literature. 



SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. l XX v 

We have, however, afforded a continuous, though necessarily Latin 
cursory, view of the subject. After this period the separate 
languages of Europe developed themselves gradually, and the Latin, 
though grievously corrupted, became exclusively the language of 
learning, as it remained at the revival of letters, and as, in renovated 
purity, it has since continued. So long as it remained a complete 
and distinct language, it was in part iEolic Greek, and in part 
appears to have been supplied from languages of kindred origin ; 
though whether these idioms were filially or collaterally related to the 
Greek, it would be impossible to affirm ; more probably, however, 
they were the latter. This view sufficiently accounts for those 
resemblances which have enabled Mr. Valpy to trace every 
Latin word with more or less of plausibility to a Greek primitive ; 
and for those diversities which are the natural result of a long 
suspended intercourse between portions of the same race. 




The Tiber, from a S batue in the Vatican 



LATIN POETRY. 



BY THE 



EEY. HENEY THOMPSON, M.A. 

1ATE SCHOLAR OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; CURATE OF WfclNGTOK, SOMERSET. 



[B. L.] 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETS. 



u.c] 

Ul5. 
u.c. J 



LIVIUS ANDRONICUS . FLOURISHED ABOUT U. 

NJEVIUS 

ENNIUS . . LIVED u.c. 515 — 585. 

PLAUTUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C. 550. 

CECILIUS U.C."! 

AFRANIUS . . U.C. >580. 

TERENCE U.C.J 

pacuvius lived u.c. 534 — 624. 

ATTIUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C. 600. 

lucilius u.c. 630. 

LUCRETIUS 

670. 

CATULLUS 



U.C.I 
U.C.J 



LATIX POETRY. 



PAET I 

THE EAELIEE POETIC LTTEEATUEE OP THE KOMANS. 

The history of Latin Poetry presents a phenomenon in literature 
wholly without parallel. The Romans were, from their origin, a 
people :: : utivity and intelligence, of strong passions, and romantic 
patriotism ; and their history and early fictions are so crowded with 
poetical incident, that some writers have not scrupled to assert that 
the great historian who records them assumed heroic ballads for 
the basis of his history. Tet, unlike many nations less favourably 
circumstanced, they remained for five centuries without a poet of emi- 
nence. Even when the Muse of Greece had unveiled to them her awful 
and dazzling beauties, they seemed less to catch thejiame of poetry 
than to learn the art, and to consider their compositions excellent, 
only in proportion as they were excellent imitations. In their 
admiration of the beautiful picture which the Grecian genius had 
produced, they lost sight of the great original, Mature ; and their 
compositions, accordingly, present, in general, correctness and pre- 
cision, but are destitute of that life, light, and colouring which the 
presence ;: 'Ratine alone can awaken on the canvas. The most 
original of all their poets himself recommends, as indispensable to 
the poet, the unremitted study of the Greek writers, as of 
perfect and infallible models ; l and his own practice abundantly 
evinces the sincerity of his respect for the precept. Overlooking 
the real peculiarities of his own original genius, Horace himself 
entertained no higher idea of originality than to make it consist in 
the importation of a new form of poetry from Greece : and affected 
on this ground to despise, as a servile herd of imitators, those who 
only copied for the second or third time. 2 Indeed, an imitator, as 

1 Hor. De Art. Pee:. 268. - 1 Ep. six. 19, seqq. 

v. •■> 



4 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

the Romans understood the word, only implied one who imitated 
Latin authors ; the imitation of Greek in no way detracting, in 
their ideas, from the originality of a composition, but rather being, 
in some respect at least, implied in its excellence. The history of 
Latin Poetry, accordingly, is the history of the action of the Greek 
mind on the Roman : every production anterior to that contact 
having been either lost, or evidencing the poetical incapability of 
Eoman intellect unkindled by the torch of Greece. 

The beginnings of the Roman State were unfavourable to 
literary pursuits of any kind. Plutarch 1 and Dionysius of 
Halicarnassus, 2 indeed, tell us that Romulus was educated at Gabii 
in Greek literature and science ; but, even allowing this prince a 
historical existence, most certain it is that nothing resembling the 
effects of education in a sovereign appears either in his own 
conduct or in the character of his subjects. On the contrary, we 
learn from Dionysius 3 that he committed the cultivation of 
sedentary and (what he called) illiberal arts to slaves and foreigners; 
and " such employments," adds the historian, " were long held in 
contempt by the Romans, whose only occupations were agriculture 
and war." Yet a specimen of the poetry, if it deserve the name, 
attributed to his day, has descended to us in the hymn of the 
Hymn of the Fratres Arvales ; of which, and of the Salian hymn which suc- 
ArvSes. ceeded it, we have already spoken : and of both which productions 
it is only necessary to observe in this place that, so far as they can 
be comprehended, they appear meagre in the extreme, 
other The triumphal songs, of which frequent mention is made by 

Hymns. Livy, 4 appear to have been merely the rude, extemporaneous 
effusions of military licence amidst the hilarity of a triumph, and 
never to have been considered in the light of compositions ; the 
examples of them given by Suetonius, 5 at a time when the lan- 
guage was highly cultivated, give us no reason to regret the loss 
of earlier specimens ; and, even in these, Dionysius of Halicarnassus 
discovers a resemblance to Grecian practices; 6 and the style and 
nature of the sacred hymns may be sufficiently gathered from what 
has just been said concerning those of Romulus and Numa. 7 Cicero 
informs us, 8 out of Cato's " Origines," that it was the custom of 
the Romans, many ages before the time even of that philosopher, 
to commemorate the valiant or virtuous achievements of their 

1 In Romulo. 2 Antiq. Rom. i. 84. 

3 Antiq. Rom. ii. 28. 4 Liv. iii. 29 ; iv. 20, 53 ; v. 49 ; vi. 10. 

5 Suet. Jul. 49, 51. These rude carols not infrequently rather reflected on 
the triumphant general than celebrated the triumph, as in this reference. 

6 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72. 

7 See infra, Livy's description of a hymn by Livius Andronicus, sung to Juno 
five hundred years later. 

8 Tusc. Quaest. i. 2, and iv. 2. Cf. Val. Max. ii. 1, 60 ; Cic. Brut. 19.; 
Yarro apud. Non. Marcell. ii. 70 ; Hor. iv. od. 15. 



BALLAD POETRY. 

countrymen in songs, accompanied on the flute, in their entertain- 
ments : and on one occasion he regrets the loss of these ballads. 1 Ballads. 
But how far there was any real cause of regret, we may tolerably 
well estimate from what is actually known of the state of Eoman 
Poetry when it first had any sensible existence, and when it was 
sufficiently bald, though formed on the perfect models of Greece. 
So little groundwork is there for the theory of Niebuhr, 2 
that the exploits of the Eoman worthies were contained in a 
series of rhapsodies, and much less that they formed, as he 
conjectures, the subject of a regular Epic poem. The "Lays 
of Ancient Kome" represent with great exactness what the 
primitive poetry of Rome would have been, had she possessed a 
Macaulay. But there is no evidence that the sentiment of her 
early ballads was better than their mechanism ; though the subjects, 
taken from a rude and unformed state of society, doubtless 
possessed that character of wild poetry which belongs to such a 
period, and which we recognise in the early books of Livy. It 
was, most probably, a rude kind of ballad, sung at harvest homes 
and other rustic festivals, which gave rise to that law of the twelve 
tables, to which Cicero alludes in order to show that the early 
ages of Eome were not so totally destitute of cultivation as was 
generally believed : 3 "Si quis pipulo occentasit, carmenve condisit t 
quod infamiam faxit flagitiumve alteri, fuste feritor." The follow- 
ing is Horace's account of the rise and progress of this species of 
poetry : 4 

Agricolse prisci, fortes, parvoque beati, 

Condita post frumenta, levantes tempore festo 

Corpus, et ipsum animum spe finis dura ferentem, 

Cum sociis operum, pueris, et conjuge fid&, 

Tellurem porco, Sylvanum lacte piabant, 

Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis sevi. 

Fescennina per bunc inventa licentia morem Fescenmne 

Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit ; 

Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos 

Lusit amabiliter, donee jam saevus apertam 

In rabiem verti coepit jocus, et per honestas 

Ire domos, impune minax : doluere cruento 

Dente lacessiti ; fuit intactis quoque cura 



1 Brut. 19. These were tbe " laudationes," as the "nsenise 1 " (poems of a similar 
character, and sometimes, perhaps, perpetuated as " laudationes '') were the lays 
sung at the funerals of eminent men. Niebuhr supposes the epitaphs of the Scipios 
to belong to this class. That these inscriptions are metrical, he argues from the 
inequality of the lines. Yet he presently observes, when it suits his purpose to 
alter the arrangement, " Stone-cutters are inaccurate in everything, but most of all 
in dividing their lines." There is nothing resembling metre in the inscriptions 
themselves. We shall, however, return to this subject presently. 

2 Nieb. RSmisch. Gesch. i. pp. 178— 354, &c. 
' 3 Tusc. Qusest. iv. 2. Of. Hor. ii. sat. i. 82. 

4 Ep. ad Aug. 139. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 385, seqq. ; Tibull. I. vii. 35—40 ; 
II. i. 55, seqq. 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Conditione super communi : quinetiam lex 
Poenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quenquam 
Describi. Vertere modum, formidine fustis 
Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti. 

"With little rich and blest, our hardy hinds 

Refresbed their toilworn frames and patient minds 

At harvest bomes ; and witb tbeir consorts true, 

Their children, and their mates in order due, 

Offered to Sylvan milk, to Earth a swine, 

To life's indulgent Genius flowers and wine. 

Hence born, Fescennine liberty exprest 

Inverse alternate coarse and rustic jest : 

For many a circling year the rugged sport 

Play'd harmlessly ; at length the hard retort 

Began with furious and unbridled rage 

War with illustrious families to wage: 

Then writhed the bitten 'neatli the bloody fang : 

Then winced the unhurt who feared the impending pang 

Then law and penalty forbad to claim 

Poetic licence with a neighbour's fame. 

Awed by the rod, they grew to change their tone, 

Content to rally and amuse alone. 



Ludi 

Scenici. 



Derivation 
of Satura. 



In the three hundred and ninety-second year of the city, and in 
the consulship of C. Sulpitius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo, a 
pestilence raged in Home. 1 The Senate, after exhausting their 
whole ritual of superstitions without success, had recourse to that 
nation from which they obtained almost all their sacred rites, and 
all their arts of divination; — Etruria. It was then that scenic 
entertainments (ludi scenici), for dramatic they could not be called, 
were first exhibited in Eome. Poetry had so little connexion with 
these, that they did not so much as embrace dumb show, but con- 
sisted merely of dances to the flute. The Koman youth were 
pleased with these exhibitions, and imitated them, accompanying 
the action with raillery. The Fescennine carols (so called from 
Fescennium, a town of Etruria 2 ), which were, for the most part, as 
scurrilous and obscene as they were rude and inharmonious, and 
which seem to have borne great analogy to the Greek phallics, sank 
into disrepute, or were only retained as part of nuptial ceremonies, 
on which they long remained faithful attendants. Frequent repeti- 
tion advanced the scenic exercises of the Eomans to their first essay 
towards a regular production, which was called a Satura, and was 
accompanied with appropriate music. 

The derivation of this word has been a point of controversy with 
the learned. Not to mention any other authors who have treated 



1 Liv. vii. 2. 
2 Of the Faliscans, says Niebuhr, not the Etruscans : he appeals to Virg. JEn. 
vii. 695, where, however, the Faliscans are distinctly classed among the Etruscan 
people. 



SATYEIC DRA3IA. 7 

it, the Scaligers are divided on it. The word is written variously 
in MSS. of authority: Satura, satyra,satira. Some derive it from 
the " lanx satura" a dish of various kinds of fruit, and suppose it 
to mean an oho ; and in proof of their etymology they adduce the 
" leges satura" l which treated on several subjects ; satira, as they 
say, being only a more modern orthography of satura, as " maxi- 
au.s" for the more ancient form "maxumus." 2 Others, who 
contend that the true orthography is satyra, derive it from adrvpos, 
and make it somewhat analogous to the early satyric drama of 
Greece. If this be the right etymology, the early form would still 
have been, most probably, satura, which orthography we shall 
accordingly adopt. 

"Whatever be the derivation of the name, the analogy of the tiling 
to the Greek satyrics does not admit of doubt. We are ready to 
allow, with the great critics who have treated this subject at more 
extended length than we can do, that its resemblance to such 
a drama as the " Cyclops " of Euripides must have been very 
slender : but it seems to have borne a close analogy to the satyric 
exhibitions of Thespis, and a still nearer to the comic aarvpos of 
the Greeks. According to Livy, the satura were dances mingled 
with raillery, which only differed from the old Fescennine carols in 
being determinate in respect both of music and verse. Let us 
compare with this account what Horace says of the satyri of 
Thespis : 3 

Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum 

Mox etiain agrestes satyros nudayit, et asper, 

Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit, eo quod 

Illecebris erat et grata novitate morandus 

Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex. 

He who in tragic contests wont to try 

For a poor goat, next to the public eye 

Exposed the rustic satyrs, and retain'd, 

Jesting, his tragic dignity unstain'd. 

Fresh from the feast, and by the wine-cup fired, 

His lawless audience such new charms required. 

The old scholiast certainly considered these satyri to be the same 
as the satura; for, in explaining this passage, he observes : " Ostendit 
Saturam natam esse e Tragoediis." One distinction between the 
satyri and satura is particularly insisted on ; that, in the latter, 
Satyrs were never introduced ; but this has not been proved ; while 
we have the testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that dances of 
Satyrs were at least common in the Roman processions. 4 Neither is 

1 Harris, Philosophical Arrangements, ch. 18. 

2 " Medius est quidam U et I litteras somas." — Quinct. i. iv. 

3 De Art. Poet. v. 220. 4 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72. 



8 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

the point of much consequence, as Satyrs were not always intro- 
duced in the Greek satyri ; the resemblance between which and the 
Koman satura is acknowledged by Eichstadt, although that author 
denies their connection, misled by the testimonies of Horace and 
Quinctilian, 1 which refer to a poetry altogether different, the satire ; 
while Dionysius speaks of the identity of the Roman and Greek 
satyric choruses as an acknowledged fact, which it would be wasting 
words to prove. 2 It is true that he is treating of what can 
scarcely be called dramatic ; yet his language is general. The 
"satyrick comedies" written by Sylla 3 were, in all probability, 
only the early satura in a more artificial form. 

After the introduction of the regular drama by Livius Andronicus, 
the Eoman youth, leaving the newly discovered art to its professors, 
continued their saturce> connected with the Atellane plays, under the 
Exodn. name of exodia. 'Egodiov or egodos was the name given by the 
Greeks to the part which followed the last fxeXos of a tragedy ; 4 
whence these satura were named exodia, from their being brought 
on the stage after the play. A most striking point of resemblance 
existed between the exodia and the Greek satyric drama. Dacier, 5 
who contends against their identity, observes that the actors 
performed in the same masks and dresses as in the play, and 
continued their characters ; and cites, in proof, the following 
passage from Juvenal : 

Urbicus exodio risum movct Atellanae 
Gestibus Autonoes. 

Where it is evident that a serious character was burlesqued. 
Similarly, when Suetonius says of Domitian, 6 " Occidit et Elvidium 
jilium, quod quasi scenico exodio sub persona Faridis et (Enones 
divortium suum cum uxore tractdsset," (or, taxdsset.) he evidently 
refers, by Dacier's admission, to a serious play, in the exodium of 
which the satire alluded to appeared. Now this was precisely the 
case with the Greek satyric. Even after tragedy had attained its 
zenith, it was customary for the poet to complete his rerpaXoyla 
with a satyric drama, in which the characters of the previous play 
were preserved. To this custom Horace alludes in his precepts to 
the satyric poet : 

1 Hor. I. sat. x. 66. Quinct. x. 1. 

2 a 0ri Se ovre Aiyvow, ovt 'OfifipiKwv, ovt &\\<av nvwv Papfidpwv rwv eV 
ItoXio. KaTOiKovvToov evprjfxa 7} aarvpiKr) TratSia nal opxyois ^u, aXX' 'EWrfvwv, 
deSoina, fj}) Kal ox^yphs slvai run 86£w, \6yois irAeiocri iriaTovaQcu OMO- 
AOrOTMENON IIPArMA frovXoixevos.— vii. 72. 

3 Plut. SyU. xxxvi. 

4 Arist. Poet. 24. %£odos 5e, fxipos '6\ov rpaycpSias /xe0' ov ovk etrn ^Spov 
peAos. De voce. e|o5os et i^oSiov, videantur Lexica, praesertim Stepbani. 

5 Mem. de FAcad. des Inscr. torn. ii. 6 Suet. Domit. ix. 



SATYRIC DRAMA. \) 

Xe quicunque Deus, quicunque adhibebitur heros, Horace on 

Regali conspectus in auro nuper et ostro, the satyric 

Migret in obscuras bumili sermone tabernas, drama. 
Aut dum vitat bumum, nubes et inania captet. 1 

Let not your god or hero, seen of late 

In regal gold and purple pall of state, 

With mean discourse descend to tavern crowds, 

Nor, -wbile be spurns tbe earth, affect tbe clouds. 

And it is obvious that he is here writing to Eomans, on a Eoman 
subject ; for, independently of the testimony of the scholiast above, 
he alludes to the laoemaria, a species of Roman comedy, and 
makes a distinction between the knights and the plebeians : 

Offenduntur enim quibus est equus, et pater, et res ; 
Nee, si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emtor, 
JEquis accipiunt animis, donantve corona. 2 

Tbose wbo can boast a borse, estate, and sire, 
Recoil ; nor what nut-muncbing clowns admire 
Receive witb favour, or with honour crown. 

It is hardly possible to bring stronger proof that the Eomans had 
a satyric drama, and that it was taken from the satyric drama of 
the Greeks ; and if this were not the exodium, we have no account 
of what it really was. And thus we should have the paradox, that 
the Eomans, who imitated every other species of Greek poetry, 
except the dithyrambus, to which the language would not rise, had 
left this untouched, substituting in its place a composition perfectly 
original, and with a name perfectly Eoman, although almost the 
same with the Greek appellation of this same neglected species of 
poetry. 3 

We have already alluded to the Atellance Fabula, or Atellane Fabuiae 
plays. These entertainments had, doubtless, a great affinity to the 

1 De Art. Poet. 227. 2 De Art. Poet. 248. 

3 We subjoin the titles of the principal works in which the history and nature 
of the Roman satitra are investigated or illustrated : Isaaci Casauboni de Satyrica, 
Grsecorum poesi et Romanorum Satira, Lib. ii. Dissertation sur les Cesars de 
Julien, et en gene'ral sur les ouvrages satyriques des Anciens, prefixed to 
Spanheim's French translation. Dacier's Discours sur la Satire, in tbe second 
volume of the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions. Josephi Scaligeri 
Castigationes ad Manilium. Julii Csesaris Scaligeri de Arte Poetica, lib. i. 
cap. ii. Danielis Heinsii de Satyra Horatiana tractatio. Yulpius de Satyrae Latinae 
natura, etc. Dryden's Essay on Satire. Brumoy, Discours sur le Cyclope 
d'Euripide et sur le spectacle satyrique des Grecs. Robortelli liber de Satyra. 
Heyne de Satyrica poesi Grsecorum et Satira Romanorum. Eicbstlidt de dramate 
Graecorum comico-satyiico. Conz fiber die Satyre der Romer und fiber Juvenal. 
Flogel's Geschichte der komiscben Litterattur. Rupert us de Satira Romanorum, 
prefixed to his Juvenal. See further references in Paehr, Geschichte Romisch. 
Litteratur. ii. 121. 



10 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

satura, 1 and were acted, like those, as exodia, or afterpieces. They 
were, however, in the Oscan language, 2 from a town of which people, 
Atella, they had been originally introduced; professional actors 
were not permitted to take part in them ; and the performers were 
not, like common players, degraded from their tribe, or excluded 
from military service. They were also permitted to use masks ; 
and, when the permission had been extended to other actors, the 
Atellane players could not be called on to unmask, as was the 
custom in other cases. But the style and matter of these pieces 
was coarse, though in this respect exceeded by the mime, the consi- 
deration of which we defer to a later period of our narration. 
The Atellane plays contained certain essential characters, like our 
pantomimes, and still more like the modern Italian " Commedie 
dell' arte : " Maccus, a heavy stupid old man, the victim of innume- 
rable tricks and accidents, like our Pantaloon, and the Italian 
Arlecchino ; Bucco, a voracious parasite and buffoon, resembling 
our Clown, and the Italian Brighella (these two characters were 
called samdones, as the Italians call the corresponding parties zanni) ; 
Pappus, an old, silly, avaricious man, resembling the Italian Panta- 
lone; and Dossennus, a cheat, and "cunning-man," answering to 
the Italian " il Dottore." These seem to have been permanent ; 
but, beside these, Manducus, Pytho-Gorgonius, Lamia, and Mania, 
ogres, ogresses, and bugbears, were occasionally introduced. The 
plots were rude; the incidents, preposterous. 

In the history of these productions and of the satura, in order to 
preserve method, we have been obliged to advance very much beyond 
the time when the Eomans first began to have poets of their own. 
Before the time of Livius Andronicus, however, the satura was 
below criticism, and the Atellana, if poetry at all, was unwritten, and 
not Latin. Until the end of their fifth century, therefore, the Eomans 
may be said to have been without a poet; none of the compositions 
then extant entitling their authors to that lofty name. Cicero, who 

1 Their resemblance to the satyri is noticed by Diomedes (iii. p. 487. Ed. Putsch.) 
" Atellanae — argumentis dictisque jocularibus similes satyricis fabulis Gratis." 
The only difference was in the stock characters. " Latina Atellana a Graeca 
satyrica differ t, quod in satyrica fere sa tyro rum personae inducunfur, aut si quae 
sunt ridiculse similes satyris, Autolycus, Burrhis : in Atellana, Oscae personae, ut 
Maccus. (iii. p. 438, Putsch.) A resemblance of the Atellanes to the Greek 
satyricks is noted by Marius Victorinus (De iamb. metr. ii.) "Superest satyricum; 

haec apud Graecos metri species frequens est quod genus nostri in 

Atellanis habent." 

2 Munk (de Fabulis Atellanis) contends that they were always Latin. They 
were undoubtedly so, when they became compositions ; but this was much later. 
At this time they were extemporaneous. From the testimony of Strabo it appears 
distinctly that Oscan plays were occasionally acted at Rome in his time : Tav 
[j.ev yap Oaicoov inXzXonroTcw 7) | SiaAe/cros uevei irapa rots 'Vcofxaiois, uxxre 
t<ai ■noL7)jxara aKrivofiarelaQai Kara, riva aycova irdrpiov Kal fXLfj.o\oye7a6aL. — v. 6. 
The old Oscan Atellane was probably carried on contemporaneously with the 
more regular Latin composition which bore its name. 



THE ROMANS, TJNPOETICAL. 11 

is as tenacious of the literary excellence of his country as any 
author can be, will not believe that the refined ears of Eomans could 
have been closed so long against the witcheries of the Pythagorean 
Philosophy ; 2 and mentions in evidence a poem of Appius Claudius 
the Blind, which appears to have had some affinity with the famous 
" Golden Yerses." Bat, with this exception, he brings no better 
proofs of his position than what we have already mentioned con- 
cerning the early lyric poetry of Latium. 2 Indeed, he admits that 
the Eomans received 3 the art of poetry late ; an expression, which, 
though certainly not intended disrespectfully to the poetical genius 
of his countrymen, sufficiently shows how differently the Greeks and 
Eomans considered a poet; for, were the passage to be literally 
interpreted, it would run, "It was somewhat late when we were 
instructed in the art of original invention." (jroLrjTLKrjv.) Cicero 
accounts for this dearth of poets, from the repugnance which the 
people manifested towards them ; and tells us that even those 
minstrels above alluded to, who, according to Cato, sang the 
warlike achievements of their ancestors to the flute, could not 
have been approved by that stern magistrate, who rebuked Marcus 
Nobilior for taking poets (meaning only Ennius) with him to iEtolia. 
This testimony is generally supported by antiquity : poets were 
regarded sometimes in the rank of mechanical transcribers, some- 
times as intrusive parasites (grassatores), sometimes as vagabonds or 
loungers (sjjatiatores)? But the question really is, what was the cause 
which excited this feeling against poetry? The only answer is, the 
unimaginative character of the people. A neglect of other litera- 
ture might be accounted for from the political situation of the 
Eomans ; but contempt of poetry is explicable upon no other hypo- 
thesis. The Celts and Scandinavians, the tribes of the Arabian 
deserts, even the Indians of North America, and the savage hordes 
of New Zealand, although without other literature, still possessed 
even regular poetry. War alone was the art in which the Eomans 
excelled ; and the fact of their inferiority in the arts of civilisation 
and literature is conspicuous through the dazzling veil of poetic 
light which Virgil has cast around it, in pourtraying their military 
glory : 5 

Excudent alii spirantia mollius sera, 
Credo equidem : vivos ducent de marinore vultus : 
Orabunt causas melius, ccelique meatus 
Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent : 



1 Tusc. Qusest. iy. 2. 2 Tusc- Q ua?st# i# 1? 2. 

3 " Seriiis Po'eticam nos accepimus." Similarly Horace, " Serus enim Greeds 
aclmovit acumina chartis" &c. 

4 Festus, voc. scriba. Cato ap. Gell. xi. 2. Fest. voc. spatiator. The word 
grassator can scarcely be taken in the sense of violence. The poet, the same 
passage informs us, was classed with him, " qui sese ad convivia applicabat." 

5 JEn. vi. 848. 



12 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Etrurian 
Literature. 



Greek 
Literature, 



Tu regere imperio populos, JRomane, memento ; 
Hse tibi erunt artes : Pacisque imponere inorem, 
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos. 

Otbers shall mould the brass -with livelier grace, 
And from the marble draw the living face ; 
More ably plead, more apt the circling skies 
Describe, and when the constellations rise : 
But these, O Roman, be thy arts : to sway, 
To bend the struggling nations to obey ; 
The terms of peace victorious to impose, 
Spare subjugated realms, and crush disdainful foes. 

The subjection of Etruria to the Roman arms is considered by 
many as the primary cause of the civilisation which dawned on the 
Komans at the beginning of their sixth century. But it does not 
appear that this event at all familiarised the victors with Etrurian 
literature, with which, such as it was, even before this conquest, 
they were tolerably well acquainted. Their commerce with the 
Etruscans was considerable ; from them, as we before observed, 
they derived their sacred rites, and their knowledge of the pretended 
art of divination ; and this, if it were not the only literature which 
the Etruscans studiously cultivated, seems to have been all for 
which the Romans valued an Etruscan education. " Habeo 
auctores" says Livy, speaking of the 444th year of Rome, 
" vulgo turn JRomanos pueros, sicut nunc Gracis, ita Mruscis Uteris 
erudiri solitos." 1 Cicero 2 and Valerius Maximus 3 tell us that 
the Senate sent youths 4 of the principal families in Rome to 
each nation of Etruria, to be instructed in their prophetic discipline. 
The poetry of the Etruscans, as far as we can learn, was contemptible 
to the last degree ; their ignorance of the drama, in particular, is 
sufficiently evident from what has already been said about Etruscan 
players in Rome. Erom them, therefore, the Romans certainly never 
derived their poetry ; and, had they done so, the opportunities were 
so great and so numerous before the final conquest of Etruria, that 
it is most improbable that they would not long before have availed 
themselves of them. 

Horace indicates the real cause : 

Grsecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes 
Intulit agresti Latio. 5 

It was Greece, and Greece alone, that was equal to the miracle ; 
she wound her chains around her barbarous conqueror, and held him 
in a slavery more glorious than his boasted freedom and universal 



1 Liv.ix. 36. 2 De Div. i. 41. 3 Val. Max. i. 1. 

4 There is a controversy about their number. The copies of Cicero generally 
state six ; those of Valerius, ten. Commentators, however, are generally agreed 
that Valerius meant to follow Cicero, although it is difficult to decide which text 
is corrupted, if indeed both are not. The number of the Etrurian nations was 
twelve. 5 Ep. ad Aug. 156. 



GREEK LITERATURE. 13 

mastery. But by Grcecia we are not here to understand Greece 
Proper, but Grcecia Magna and Sicily ; which, being inhabited by 
Greeks, first brought, by their subjugation, the Greek writers to the 
notice of the Eomans. That, from a very early period, the Italian 
nations had been acquainted with Greek poetical traditions, is certain. 
The Greek heroic names had undergone translation ; l a proof of 
familiarity ; and Greek myths were represented on works of art. 
Munk, who rejects the connection of adrvpos with satura, neverthe- 
less supposes that the latter was derived to the Eomans from their 
intercourse with Sicily. 

The boundaries of Magna Gratia are not accurately ascertained, Magna 
nor does it belong to us to attempt settling them here. But the Gr8ecia « 
south of Italy had for many centuries been peopled with settlers 
from Greece, who retained and cultivated the arts and literature of 
the mother country. In the 487th year of the city, the Romans 
obtained complete possession of this interesting country by the 
conquest of Tarentum ; and the intercourse established between the 
two nations necessarily introduced literary pursuits at Rome. The 
study of poetry, in particular, had not been neglected by the Italian 
Greeks. Pythagoras and his school gave their philosophic precepts 
in verse : Orpheus of Crotona wrote a poem on the Argonautic 
expedition ; Ibycus of Ehegium composed odes ; Alexis of Thurium 
wrote two hundred and forty-five comedies ; Stephanus, his son, 
was a comedian. Dunlop 2 says that this Stephanus (whom he calls 
Stefano, apparently taking this part of his work from Tiraboschi, 
Storia delta Lett. Ital. lib. i. pt 2. c. 2,) was, according to Suidas, 
the uncle of Menander, The words of Tiraboschi are certainly 
ambiguous; but Suidas, in the edition which Tiraboschi himself 
cites, makes Alexis, and not Stephanus, the uncle of Menander. 
AXe£i? Qovpios. Teyove de 7rarpa>s Mevdvdpov tov KcopuKov. 3 
Tiraboschi and Dunlop make Stephanus a tragedian on the authority 
of Suidas ; but the lexicographer adds, eV^e Se vlbv Srecpavov, ml 
avrbv khmikon. Xenocritus of Locris wrote dithyrambs. 
Theano, of the same place, composed lyric poetry ; and ISTossis, also 
of Locris, wrote epigrams. 

The conquest of Magna Grcecia was succeeded by an event which Sicily. 
contributed in a still greater degree to advance the cause of literature 
among the Eomans. Two years only after the capture of Tarentum, 
arose the first Punic war. The scene of this contest was not, like 
that of earlier struggles, in the neighbourhood of their own territory ; 
and this circumstance gave them leisure to contemplate the charms 
of the Grecian Muse at home, while they were every day unveiling 
new beauties in the theatre of the war, Sicily. In that country the 

1 e. g. Odysseus, Ulixes ; Aias, Ajax ; Ganymedes, Catamitus ; &c. See 
Niebuhr, iii. p. 310, iv. lect. xix. 

2 Hist, of Rom. Lit. i. p. 63. 3 Suid. voc. A\e|is. 



u 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Early 
Draina. 



Livius 
Andronicus. 



flowers of Grecian poesy had blossomed with much greater 
luxuriance than even on the neighbouring continent, and here was 
the cradle of the pastoral and comic Muses. It was here that Stesi- 
chorus is supposed to have invented Bucolic Poetry, and certainly 
did reduce lyrical compositions to the regular division of strophe, 
antistrophe, and epode. It was here that Empedocles " married to 
immortal verse " the " illustrious discoveries " of his " divine 
mind ;" l that Epicharmus invented Comedy, which was cultivated 
by Philemon, Apollodorus, Carcinus, Sophron, and various others : 
and that Tragedy found successful votaries in Empedocles, Sosicles, 
and Achseus. It was in Sicily that the Mime was invented, or, at 
least, perfected ; Pindar, iEschylus, and Simonides, had resided at 
the court of Hiero I., and Theognis of Megara committed his 
precepts to elegiacs in Sicily. The Dionysii also were authors, as 
well as patrons of literary men. At the time when the Eomans 
were in Sicily, it is not improbable that Theocritus was living. On 
the conclusion of the peace with Carthage, in the year of the city 
512, 2 a part of Sicily was ceded by treaty to the Eomans, who had 
now leisure and tranquillity to enable them to inquire 

Quid Sophocles, et Thespis, et iEschylus utile ferrent. 

Many of the inhabitants of the conquered provinces came to 
reside at Eome, and imported their arts and cultivation ; and from 
this period the history of Eoman poetry assumes a regular and 
connected form. 

In the consulship of C. Claudius Cento, and M. Sempronius 
Tuditanus, the 514th year of Rome, 3 Livius Andronicus first 
advanced the dramatic art from the satura to a regular plot. His 
surname evidently proves that he was a Greek ; but whether of 
Greece Proper, Italy, or Sicily, is not known. His Eoman name 
seems also to intimate that he was the freedman of a certain Livius; 
it being the custom of freed men at Eome, to assume, on liberation, 
the name of their former master. It is most probable that he fell 
into the hands of the Eomans in their wars in Magna Grcecia or 
Sicily, as the Eomans, at that time, had no regular intercourse with 
Greece. He is generally asserted to have been the slave of Livius 
Salinator, but Tiraboschi can find no better authority for this 
statement than the Chronicle of Eusebius ; and as Salinator was 
not consul until u. c. 534, he concludes that the master of Andro- 
nicus was another of the same family. Attius, the annalist, according 

1 See Lucret. i. 733, 734. 
2 Punico hello secundo Musa pennato gradu 
Intulit se bellicosam Romuli in gentem feram. 

Porcius Licinius ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. 
3 Cic. Brut, xviii. Cf. ejusd. Tusc. Disp. i. 1 ; De Senect. xiv. ; Aul. Gell. 
xvii. 21. 



LIVII'S AXDEOXICUS. 15 

to Cicero. 1 said that Livius was made captive at Tarentum, thirty 
years after the date usually assigned to his first play; but Cicero 
treats this as a gross error. The account which Livy gives of the 
introduction of the Drama is curious. 2 " Livius," says he, " being, 
as was then the case with all, the actor of his own productions, 
and having weakened his voice by being frequently recalled on 
the stage, is said to have obtained leave to introduce a boy to sing 
his part before the flute -player, and was thus enabled to perform 
his compositions with more spirited action, because he was no 
longer impeded by the use of his voice. From this circumstance," 
adds the historian, " arose the custom of actors performing to the 
singing of others, and only employing their voices in dialogue." 
The works of Andronicus have perished, except a few disjointed 
fragments ; but if we are to judge by the opinions of Cicero and 
Horace, Time might have been more injurious to us. Cicero says 
his plays were not worth a second perusal ; 3 and Horace, in whose 
time the poems of Livius were regularly taught in the schools, 
reproves the midiscriminating antiquaries of his day, who exalted 
them above the refined productions of a more polished age ; — * 

Non equidem insector, delendaque carrnina Livi 
Esse reor, memini qua? plagosuni mihi parvo 
Orbiliurn dictare : sed emendata videri, 
Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror. 
Inter quse verburn emicuit si forte decorum, et 
Si versus paulo concinnior turns et alter, 
Injuste totum ducit venditque poema. 

I would not Livius' poetry destroy, 
Which sharp Oibifius, when I was a boy, 
Flogged into me ; but why men call it fine, 
Exquisite, perfect, ne'er could I divine. 
If here and there a happy phrase and terse. 
Or now and then, perhaps, a well-turned verse 
Occur, forthwith the critic puffs the whole. 

The names of the plays ascribed to Andronicus are Achilles, 
Aclon, Sgistlius, Ajax, Andromeda, Antiopa, Cenfauri, Equus 
Trojanus, Gladiolus* Helena, Hennione, Ino, Lydius, b Protesi- 
laodamia, (forte Protesilaus el Laoclamia) Seranus, Tereus, Tev.cer, 
Teutkras, Fin/o. 5 Beside his dramatic works, he made a transla- 
tion of the Odyssey in Saturnian metre ; and Livy tells us that a 
hymn composed by him in honour of Juno was sung through the 
city by twenty-seven virgins in the year 545 (a.C. 207), of which 
the historian gives no very favourable account: "Ilia tempestate 
forsitau laudabile rudibus ingeniis, nunc abliorrens et inconditmn, si 

1 Brut, xviii. - Liv. vii. 2. 3 Brut, xviii. 

4 Epist. ad Aug. 69, seqq. s These were comedies. 



16 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Comedy. 



Naavius. 



referatur" l Some, on the authority of Diomedes, 2 the Gram- 
marian, make Livius the first Latin epic poet ; but for " Livius " 
we should read " Mmius," or "is" as is found in the best editions. 
Livius, according to Suetonius, 3 taught Greek at Eome ; that is, 
translated Greek words and authors for such as were desirous to 
obtain a knowledge of the language ; for the art of grammar was 
then unknown to the Eomans. He lived till Cato was a " youth;"* 
that is, till he had reached his seventeenth year ; and therefore 
could not have died before u.c. 535. But it is evident that 
there is no certainty of his having lived until 545 ; as the 
hymn sung in that year might have been composed on some 
previous occasion. 

Such were the beginnings of the first epoch of Roman poetry. 
We shall now proceed to discuss, separately, the progress of its 
different departments during that period, which lasted about two 
centuries, and was succeeded by the splendid sera of Augustus. 
Cnseus Naevius, a Campanian, or, as some rather suppose, a native 
of Eome, six years after the representation of Livius' first play, 5 
became a candidate for dramatic fame, and wrote, as well as Livius, 
comedies and tragedies. The names of the former preserved to us 
are, Acontizomenos, Agitatoria, Agrypnuntes, Apella, Assitogiola, 
Carbonaria, Clastidium, Colax, Corollaria, Cosmetria, Demetrius, 
Diobolarii, Figulus, Glaruma, Gymnasticus, Hariolus, Leon, Lupus, 
Nautce, Pacilius, Pellex, Philemporm, Projectus, Pulli, Quadri- 
gemini, Sanniones, Stalagmus, Stigmatius, Tarentilla, Testicvlaria, 
Tripliallus, Tunicularia. His tragedies were entitled, JEgisthus, 
Alcestis, Danae, D/dorestes, Equus Trojanus, Hesiona, Hector, Iphi- 
genia, Lycurgus, P/ioenissce, Protesilaodamia, Teleplws, and Tereus. 
His comic humour seems to have partaken much of the old satyric 
spirit, and, like that of the early comic poets of Greece, to have 
been fearlessly and liberally directed against the leading characters 
of the state. The following lines, preserved to us by Aulus 
Gellius, 6 were applied, by common scandal, to the elder Africanus: — 

Etiam qui res magnas saepe gessit gloriose, 

Cujus facta viva nunc vigeut, qui apud gentes solus 

Prasstatj eum suus pater, cum pallio uno, ab arnica abduxit ! 

He had also, in a comprehensive line, insinuated that the family of 
the Metelli did not enjoy the consulship on account of their own 
deserts, but in consequence of the evil destiny of Eome : — 



Fato Metelli Romse fiunt Consules 



1 Liv. xxvii. 37. 

4 Cic. Cato Maj. xiv. 



2 Diom. Gram. iii. 
5 Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. 



3 De Illustr. Gram. i. 1. 
6 Noct. Att. vi. 18. 



N^VIUS. PLAUTUS. 17 

This the Metelli retaliated with a threat, which was afterwards Naevius. 
executed on the poet : 

Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio Poetae. 

Nsevius was imprisoned, and composed in confinement two of his 
comedies, the Hariolus and the Leo7i ; l and, for the sake of these, 
which were a sort of recantation of his former lampoons, he was set 
at liberty by the tribunes of the commons. Gellius, in the passage 
from whence this information is taken, tells us that the satire of 
Naevius resembled that of the Greek poets; and Horace informs 
us that the popularity of the poet was so great, and that his works 
were so well known, that copies of them were neglected, as useless 
to perpetuate what was in every man's memory : — 

Naevius in manibus non est ; at mentibus haeret 
Paene recens. 2 

The readings and interpretations, however, of this passage are 
various. Naevius died at Utica, whither he had been banished for Nsevius' 

. . • 1 -r» • epitaph. 

continuing his invectives against the Koman aristocracy, about 
u.c. 550. 3 He wrote his own epitaph, haughty and defiant as his 
life:— 

Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, 
Flerent Divae Camcenae Naevium poetam ; 
Itaque, postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro, 
Obliti sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua. 

If e'er o'er beings mortal might sorrow tbose divine, 
Then o'er the poet Naevius would weep tbe beavenly Nine ; 
For since the bard was treasured old Orcus' stores among, 
At Rome they have forgotten to speak the Latin tongue. 

The lawless and unsparing satire of the Old Comedy, intolerable 
even in the licentious democracy of Athens, was little likely to 
maintain a permanent ascendency at Home. The example of 
Naevius had not been lost ; and his successor, Marcus Attius (or 
Maccius) Plautus, carefully evaded the misfortunes which it ap- piautus. 
peared would too surely attend ridiculing the public characters of 
the day. Some of his productions seem imitated from the later 
plays of Aristophanes, or what is generally called the Middle 
Comedy of the Greeks ; and in these, probably, public characters 
were covertly satirized. Others, again, are formed on the model 
of Philemon, Diphilus, and Menander, or the New Comedy. 

1 Aul. Gell. i. 24. 2 g p> a( j Aug. 53 

3 His consulibus (M. Corn. Cethego et P. Sempronio Tuditano, u. c. 550) 
ut in veteribus commentariis scriptum est, Naevius est mortuus ; quanquam Varro 
noster, diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis, putat in hoc erratum, vitamque 
Naevii producit longius. — Cic. Brut. xv. The Eusebian Chronicle places the 
event u. c. 553. 

[R. l.] c 



18 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Piautus. Plautus, as we learn from Horace, 1 was an imitator of Epicharmus; 
but we have no means of ascertaining the merits or success of his 
model. There is, however, a Roman freshness about his plays, 
which, notwithstanding their Grecian garb and origin, convinces 
the reader that they are, to a great extent, original. And, in- 
deed, they are highly valuable as illustrative of the private and 
public life of the Boman people. When we read the plays of 
Plautus, and learn from all antiquity how highly they were admired, 
we cannot but feel surprise at finding Horace treating them as 
works agreeable indeed to their rustic forefathers, 2 but perfectly 
antiquated in his own more polite and fastidious age. Perhaps, 
however, this is more than ought, in fairness, to be deduced from 
the words of the poet : — 

At nostri proavi Plautinos et numeros et 
Laudavere sales ; nimiiim patienter utrumque, 
Ne dicam, stulte, mirati ; si modo ego et vos 
Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dictum, 
Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et aure. 

Our forefathers old Plautus' wit would praise, 
And the rude measures of his scenic lays; 
Too tolerant in their favours : if the word 
Be pardon' d me, I ev'n would say, absurd : 
At least, if you and I know dull from bright, 
And count and hear poetic tones aright. 

This criticism, although it is generally understood to imply the 
most unqualified censure on Plautus, in reality only charges his 
metres with ruggedness, and his jests with coarseness ; the truth of 
which charges will hardly be denied by his most devoted admirers. 
And yet the great critic-poet, in this instance, as in some others, 
may have been too contemptuous. The rudeness of Plautus's 
versification is not merely the result of an uncultivated period ; it is 
the effect of intention and art, as is evident from the epitaph com- 
posed by the poet for himself : — 

Postquam morte datu' st Piautus, Comcedia luget, 
Scena est deserta ; dein Risus, Ludu', Jocusque, 
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. 3 

Since Plautus died, Thalia beats her breast : 
The stage is empty : Laughter, Sport, and Jest, 
And all the timeless measures, weep distrest. 

Plautus was probably acquainted with the niceties of the senarius, 
as Horace doubtless was with those of the heroic hexameter ; 
both poets adopted an artificial negligence, as best suited to the 
objects they contemplated. The comedies of Plautus are written 

1 Ep. ad Aug. 58. 2 De Art. Poet. 270, seqq. 3 Aul. Gell. i. 24. 



PLAUTUS. COMIC VERSE. 19 

in a style much too unfettered by the Aristotelian rules of composi- Piautus. 
tion, to command the entire approbation of critics of that school ; 
but though he is greatly inferior to Terence in felicity of expression 
and purity of language, his dramatic nights, not unfrequently, 
surpass the loftiest of that most elegant writer. At the same time 
it is necessary to observe that the plays of Piautus have apparently 
been much corrupted, not only in frequent transcription, but by 
actors' readings, and other causes. We have reason to believe that 
we possess them all, except the Viclularia ; although great numbers 
of others have been attributed to him. His " elegance " is highly 
commended by Gellius, 1 and iElius Stilo said that the Muses, if 
they spoke Latin, would speak the style of Piautus. 2 Of his life 
few particulars are known. He was born at Sarsina, in Umbria, 
about u.c. 500, and died at Eome, u.c. 569, a.c. 184. His origin 
was humble. His love of the drama led him to labour as a servant 
to the actors, in which occupation he obtained some wealth, which 
he afterwards lost by speculations. In consequence, he was obliged 
to work in a mill at Eome for his daily bread. In this situation, 
according to Yarro, and most others, 3 he composed the Saturio, the 
Aditus, and another play. The story is confirmed by Eusebius, 4 but 
is rendered suspicious by the names of the plays, and is discredited 
by Niebuhr. It is possible that Piautus may have been confounded 
in this, as in other instances, with another comic poet named 
Plautius. 5 

The New Comedy of the Eomans was not, in all respects, a copy of Greek and 
the Greek; the scene was generally laid at Athens, and the characters comedyf eW 
were of the middle station of life, as in Menander ; but the artifice 
of a double plot was added, and the Latin Muse, in all other com- 
positions severer than her sister of Greece, in the drama allowed 
herself much greater licences, and those in Comedy were almost 
unbounded. It was doubted in the time of Horace whether Comedy 
was a poem; 6 inasmuch as its subject and style are prosaic, and 
it only differs from prose in being metrical. Even in this latter 
respect, however, the difference is not very sensible, and the fol- 
lowing passage of Cicero will show that the harmony of the comic 
verse was not so very perceptible, even in his time : " Comicorum comic 
senarii, propter similitudinem sermonis, sic scepe stmt abjecti, ut non- Metre - 
nunquam vix in his numerus et versus intelligi possit ; " 7 and among 
the moderns, Erasmus, Scaliger, Bentley, and Eaber, who have 
endeavoured to reduce the metres of Terence to rule, have been 
obliged to admit great numbers of exceptions to their theories. 
The Latin comic measure, like its model the Greek, consists for the 
most part of iambic trimeters acatalectic, and trochaic tetrameters 

1 Aul. Gell. vii. 17. 2 Quinct. x. 1. 

3 Yarro et plerique alii. — Aul. Gell. iii. 3. 4 n. 1810. 

5 See Aul. Gell, ubi supra. 6 1. Sat. iv. 45. ' Orat. lv. 

c 2 



20 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETItY. 

catalectic, although these are much less restricted than the corre- 
sponding metres of the Greek stage. Thus the iambic verse admits 
in every place, except the last, wherein the characteristic foot is 
always preserved, the dactyl, anapaest, spondee, tribrach, pyrrhic, 
and proceleusma. The same feet are allowed in the trochaic verse. 
The only distinction is that the iambus is never admitted into the 
trochaic verse, nor the trochee into the iambic. A principal diffi- 
culty, however, arises from many words being scanned in comedy, 
as, doubtless, they were pronounced in conversation, in order to 
bring this species of composition still nearer the forms of ordinary 
life. We shall give some instances from Terence : 

Elision of v. Libert \ its vfen \ difuit | jjotes | tas n'dn \ te"a. \ 

Iamb. Triinb. 
vfendi for vivendi, and fuit for fuit. 
Elision of I. Hubet ad \ das et i | las quds \ hdbct \ rede \ feras. 

Iamb. Trimb. 
Tlas for illas. 
Elision of d. Qu'' inter | est hoc \ a. deo' ex \ hac re | verut \ In men | tern — 
ml | hi. Troch. Tetr. Cat. 
Qu' inter, Qui' inter, for Quid inter. 

But even these rules will not explain every verse. Terence is more 
remiss in the construction of his verses than Plautus; and the 
traces of early rusticity which were said by Horace to exist even 
in his days in the literature of his country are no where more 
conspicuous than in the versification of the comic poets of Latium. 

Praetextae The Eoman drama did not strictly confine itself to Greek subjects. 

Togatee. Horace commends those authors who had patriotically ventured to 
desert the beaten path, and celebrate national topics : — 

Nee minimum meruere decus, vestigia Graeca 
Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta, 
Vel qui Praetextas, vel qui doeuere Togatas. 1 

These plays were tragedies and comedies respectively, of which the 
characters were Eoman. Patrick, indeed, in the life of Terence pre- 
fixed to his edition of that poet, contends that the Fratexta? were 
only comedies of a more serious kind. This idea is very common, and 
is advocated by Gyraldus and J. C. Scaliger. 2 But, whatever they 
may have been called, it is certain that they had not the nature of 
Comedy. Gyraldus distinguishes thus between Tragedy and what 
he is pleased to call the Prcetextate Comedy. " Prcstexta verb in 
hoc a Tragcedid differt, quod in Tragcedid heroes introducuntur, in 
Prcetextatd Romance personce, ut Brutus, Decius." According to this 
account, the Pratextce were tragedies on Eoman subjects. Probably 
they differed not greatly from the historical plays of Shakspeare ; 

1 De Art. Poet. 286. 
Gyrald. de Comoedid. — Seal, de Corn, et Trey. cap. iii. 



VRMTEX.TM AND TOGAT.E. 21 

and, not being limited by the unities, may have thus come to be 
considered a distinct kind of composition from Tragedy. 1 The 
word Togata is used genetically to express a Eoman play, in oppo- 
sition to Po.lliata, a Greek play; the Prcetexta being but the Toga 

1 The reader may obtain some idea of their character from the following passage 
of Attius's Brutus, preserved by Cicero (De Divia. i. 22). The interlocutors 
are Tarquin the Proud and his diviners. 



Quum jam quieti corpus nocturno impetu 
Dedi, sopore placans artus languidos ; 
Visa' est in somnis pastor ad me appellere ; 
* * * * * 

Duos consanguineos arietes inde eligi, 

Pecus lanigerum eximia pulchritudine ; 

Prseclarioremque alteram immolare me : 

Deinde ejusgermanum cornibus connitier 

In me arietare, eoque ictu me ad casum dari ; 

Exin prostratum terra graviter saucium, 

Resupinum ; in coelo contueri maximum 

Ac mirificum facinns ; dextrorsiim orbem flammeum 

Radiatum solis liquier cursu novo. 

COKJECTORES. 

Rex, quee in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident, 

Quseque aiunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea si cui in somno accidunt, 

Minus mirum est; sed in re tanta haud tern ere improvisd offerunt. 

Proin vide, ne quern tu esse hebetem deputes, a?que ac pecus, 

Is sapientia munitum pectus egregia gerat, 

Teque regno expellat. Xam id quod de so 1 ^ ostentum est tibi, 

Populo commutationem rerum portendit fore. 

Perpropinqua haec bene verruncent populo ! nam quod ad dexteram 

Caepit c'ursum ab laeva signum prsepotens ; pulcerrime 

Auguratum est, rem Romanam publicam summam fore. 

TARQUIN. 

When, urged by weary night, I gave my frame 
To rest, vrith sleep calming my languid limbs, 
A shepherd seem'd in slumber to accost me. 
* * * * * 

Two kindred rams were chosen from the flock, 
A fleecy treasure of unwonted beauty : 
Whereof I slew the fairer on an altar. 
Then 'gan his fellow with his horns essay 
To butt me, and overthrew me on the ground ; 
"Where as I lay sore wounded in the dust, 
I gaz'd on heaven, and there beheld a vast 
And wondrous sign : the fiery ray-girt sun 
Passed back in strange disorder to his right. 



Good my liege, it is no marvel if the forms of waking thought, 
Care, and sight, and deed, and converse, all revisit us in sleep : 



22 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



of the nobler Bomans, and only differing from the ordinary Toga 
in being bordered with purple : Toga Piletexta purpura. When, 
however, the term Togata is used specifically, it denotes the Tabula 
Tabernaria, or Koman Comedy; or, a higher class of comedy 
than the Tabernaria, but still purely Roman. The severity of the 
Eoman character imparted a gravity to the higher class of the 
Togata, which made it, according to Seneca, 1 a middle ground 
between Tragedy and Comedy. There was also a species of 
Dramatic play called RhintJwnica {fabula,) from its inventor, Rhinthon, of 
terms. Tarentum. Of this the AmjjJdtruo of Plautus may afford the best 

idea. It was a kind of tragi-comedy, 2 in which heroes and divini- 
ties were introduced, after a burlesque fashion, and mingled 
with comic personages. Beside these terms, there were others 
referring to the internal economy of plays. A comedy which con- 
tained much bustle and action was called Motoria ; the reverse 
of this was called Stata?ia; and where the two were combined, 
the composition was called Mixta. The principal writers of the 
Comcedia Togata were Trabea, Lamia, Pomponius, Atta, Titinius, 
Afranius. and Afranius. The loss of the writings of the last-mentioned 
poet, which were committed to the flames by the misdirected 
zeal of Gregory I., is an irreparable calamity to literature. Prom 
the character which he possessed among his countrymen, and which 
has been so beautifully given in one line by Horace, 3 

Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, 

there is reason to believe that his dramas were, at once, excellent 
and original ; notwithstanding his admission that he not only 
adapted Menander, but occasionally even a Latin poet also ; 4 and it 



But we may not pass regardless sight so unforedeemed as this. 
Wherefore see lest oue thou thinkest stupid as the flocks that graze 
Bear a heart with choicest wisdom purified and fortified, 
And expel thee from thy kingdom. For the portent of the sun 
Shows there is a change impending o'er the people of thy sway. 
May the gods avert the omen ! it is near! the mighty star 
From his left to right returning, shows thee clearly as his light 
That the Roman people's greatness shall hecome supreme at last. 

This specimen may lead us to regret that nothing more considerable should 
have remained of the prsetextate plays. Yet they were few. The names of those 
of an earlier date are but five, and one of these is questionable, the Marcellus, 
attributed to Attius ; of the others we shall make mention presently. 

1 Ep. viii. 

2 Faciam ut commixta sit tragicocomcedia ; 
Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comcedia 
Reges quo veniant et Dii, non par arbitror. 

Quid igitur? quoniam hie servus quoque parteis habet, 

Faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragicocomcedia. — Plant. Prolog, in Amphitr. 



3 Ep. ad Aug. 57. 



Macr. Sat. v. 1. 



COMIC POETEY. 



23 



must have been curious to see what the vigorous mind of a Roman Afranius. 
dramatist could have produced, when, drawing from the great 
model, Nature, he continually corrected and refined his copy from 
the elegant proportions of the Attic Thalia. Quinctilian objects to 
the morals of his dramas, which, therefore, considering those of 
ancient Comedy generally, must have been very bad. Stephens has 
collected a few scattered fragments of this author; and though little 
judgment of the poet can be formed from them, some of them 
evince great delicacy and elegance. 

We have scanty means of tracing the progress of Comedy between 
the times of Plautus and those of Publius Terentius. All the works Terence. 
of the numerous comedians who 
flourished during that period, 
exclusive of a few fragments, 
have perished. Their names, and 
the titles of their plays, may be 
found in Fabricius's Bibliotheca 
Latina, lib. iv. c. 1. Licinius 
Imbrex, Turpilius, and Atilius, 
may be mentioned as distin- 
guished. Luscius Lavinius is 
known to us as the " vetus 
poeta" whom Terence chastises 
in his prologues. Fabius Dos- 
sennus, considered by some 
scholars an Atellane writer, is 
very satisfactorily shown by 
Munk l to have been a writer of 
the Comoedia Palliata. Csecilius 
Statius, like Terence, a slave and 
a foreigner, being of Gallic origin, 
is the most celebrated of the 
minor comic poets ; Yarro gives 
his plots the palm; 2 Cicero 
doubts whether he is not the 
best comic poet; 3 and Quine- 
tilian and Horace bear testimony 
to his great popularity. 4 Cicero, 
however, in other passages, con- 
demns his Latinity. 5 But the best 

idea to be formed of Csecilius is from certain passages of his Plocium, 
an imitation of the UXokiov, or Necklace, of Menander, which Aulus 




Terence. 



1 De Fab. Atell. p. 121, seqq. 

3 De Opt. Gen. Orat. i. 

5 Ep. ad Att. vii. 3. Brut, lxxiv. 



In Parmeno. ap. Non. in voc. Poscere. 
Quinct. x. 1. Hor. Ep. ad Aug. 59. 



24 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Terence. Gellius has cited, together with the originals, for the purpose of 
showing the inferiority of this poet, and Latin poets in general, to 
the Greek masters. 1 If we are to take these passages of Csecilius 
as a specimen of the method of imitation of the comic poets, we 
shall find it greatly to have resembled Virgil's copies of Homer 
or of Theocritus. Whatever may have been the general style or 
character of the comedies written during the interval now in 
question, it is scarcely possible to believe that Terence could, at 
once, have raised this species of composition to the perfection in 
which he left it ; several grades probably intervened. Indeed, the 
very nature of Comedy had, during this period, undergone alteration; 
seeking no longer to please by the mere ridiculous, the Comic 
Muse had applied herself to the more worthy and philosophical 
task of delineating ordinary life as it is, with its pathetic, no less 
than its amusing character. This appears from the following judg- 
ment of Varro : 2 " rj6rj nulli alii servare convenit quam Titinio, 
Terentio, Atlce ; nadr) Trabea, et Atilius et Cacilius facile moverunt." 
The latter is the style of Comedy in which Terence has chosen 
to excel ; although in pathos he was held inferior to those poets. 
There is, indeed, no violent excitement of the passions in Terence ; 
but, while the writings of Plautus are studiously filled with jests 
and witticisms, it is seldom that Terence indulges in anything of 
this kind, but is content to raise a laugh naturally from his subject; 
employing sometimes a grave and sententious discourse, which 
would have been quite incompatible with the Middle Comedy. The 
absence of the comic power in Terence is regretted in some verses 
attributed to Julius Caesar, from which it would appear that 
Menander was not deficient in this respect, and that consequently 
Terence was only entitled to half the honour of having reproduced 
him in Latin. But these verses concur with all antiquity in 
praising the purity of the Terentian style. 3 Some lines, attributed to 
Cicero, in like manner commend the elegance of Terence's language, 
and notice, though without censure, the sober garb in which he 
had invested the livelier sentiments of the Greek comedian. 4 

1 Aul. Gell. ii. 23. 2 Ap. Sosip. Charis. ii. 

3 Tu qnoque, tu, in summis, 6 dimidiate Menander, 
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator. 
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis 
Comical ut sequato virtus polleret honore 
Cum Grsecis, neque in hac despectus parte jaceres. 
Unum hoc maceror et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti. 

Jul. Cces. ap. Sueton. 

Tu quoque, qui solus lee to sermone, Terenti, 
Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum 
In medio populi sedatis vocibus effers, 
Quidquid come loquens, et omnia dulcia dicens. 



TERENCE. 25 

The comedies of Terence are altogether translated or adapted Tereilce - 
from Menander, Apollodoms, and Diphilus; and while the poet 
keenly resents the charge of borrowing from Eoman sources, he no 
less boastfully avows his Greek authorities ; an obligation which 
he seems to consider, as Latin writers generally did, indispensable 
to excellence, and therefore not detrimental to originality. The 
unities, somewhat loosely observed by comedians of the old school, 
have never been violated by Terence, except, perhaps, in the 
Heautontimorumenos ; and to this rule he has, apparently, made 
important sacrifices. The artifice of a double plot, occasionally 
found in Plautus, was carried to its perfection by Terence, whose 
skill in its management is in the highest degree admirable. Such, 
however, was the state of society at Athens (the scene of a large pro- 
portion of the Latin comedies), and such the severity of the laws which, 
both there and at Rome, guarded every avenue of satire, that the 
comedies remaining to us, those of Terence especially, present little 
novelty of character or plot. A parasite and a soldier, a courtezan, 
a gentleman, and a slave, are the usual ingredients of the drama ; 
the interest of which usually turns on the dexterity of the last, and 
the catastrophe on one of the characters turning out to be a free 
woman of Athens. It could scarcely be otherwise in the state of 
Athenian society, where citizen and slave were the only prominent 
distinctions, and where no consideration was allowed to women. 
Some writers affected one of these characters more than another ; 
Dossennus, of whom we know very little, was very partial to the 
parasite. 

A life of Terence is extant which is referred by some critics to 
Donatus, and by others to Suetonius. This uncertainty is of no 
small importance to the credit of the narrative. If it was written by 
the author of the life of Virgil, he was so careless and so credulous, 
that its historical authority is contemptible. We fear, however, 
that the internal evidence, as far as style is concerned, would fix 
the work upon him, There is an anecdote in this biography truly 
Donatian. Terence, we are told, on presenting his Jndria to the 
sediles for representation, was by those respectable magistrates 
referred to the judgment of Csecilius. The youthful dramatist 
found the veteran at the principal Eoman meal. Terence was not, 
it seems, attired in a costume sufficiently impressive to prepossess 
his critic ; and he was accordingly ordered to accommodate himself 
with a stool at the foot of the festal couch, where the stately 
favourite of the people was reclining. After reciting a few verses, 
however, he was invited by Csecilius to share the pleasures of his 
table, and the recitation of the Andria was concluded with great 
applause. The Eusebian Chronicle gives the substance of this 
story ; l most probably, after this author ; but it can scarcely be 

1 Olymp. 155, 3. 



26 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Terence. true, from chronological considerations, if Csecilius the poet be 
meant j * but some copies have Cserius. Of like value is the relation 





cv^Sijet^L^ie 






J t iafr^=f Jr •!«-■ -^-=^"^-i A ' 


7 il Y 


jlrp^fe*^* 




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/=nHi :p^I=-^&ir~ — — zyu*-^— 


jggp — v g= ^ — 


1 ^ **ftrj*. 





of Consetius, quoted by the same author, that he perished on his 
return from Greece with one hundred and eight comedies, which he 
had translated from Menander; when it is most probable that 
Menander wrote only one hundred and nine, and it is not certain 
that he wrote so many ; and Terence had already imitated four of 
them. Part of the work is certainly the production of Suetonius ; 
but whether this is only a short quotation, or the bulk of the 
history, is uncertain ; Terence, however, is generally admitted to 
have been a Carthaginian, and to have been a slave at Eome, where 
he was early liberated. He was intimate with Scipio Africanus the 
younger, and the younger Lselius, 2 and Furius Publius, who are 
accused, with no slight colour of probability, of having assisted 
him in the composition of his comedies. It is extremely improbable 
that the exquisite purity and elegance of the Terentian Latinity 
should be the unassisted production of a Carthaginian slave ; and 
Terence himself admits, in the Prologue to his Adelplii, that he 
received the assistance of persons who were eminently useful in the 
state : — 

Nam, quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles 

Eum adjutare, assidueque una scribere ; 

Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant, 

Earn laudem hie ducit maxumam, quum illis placet 

Qui vobis universis et populo placent ; 

Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, 

Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia. 



1 The A ndria was first acted 588 ; Csecilius died u.c. 586. 

2 The elder in both cases, according to Schlegel ; but this will not stand with 
chronology. 



TEAGEDY. 27 

As to what these malicious folks object, Terence. 

That noble men assist him, and write with him ; 

What they conceive to be a foul reproach 

He deems the highest praise ; since those applaud him 

Whom all of you applaud, and all the people ; 

Whose aid in war, in leisure, and in labour, 

Each man has used as suited his occasion. 

Similar is the passage in the prologue to the Heauto?itimoru- 
menos : — 

Turn, quod malevolus vetus poeta dictitat, 
Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum, 
Amicum ingenio fretum, hand natura sua ; 
Arbitrium vostrum, vostra existimatio 
Valebit. 

Then, as to what a sour old poet says, 
That he, our bard, has lately learnt his art, 
Taught by the genius of his friends, not nature : 
Your judgment, your good graces, shall avail 
For his defence. 

His biographer tells us that Terence was less solicitous to defend 
himself against this charge, because he knew that the reputation of 
being the authors of his comedies was by no means unacceptable 
to his patrons. From the same writer we learn that the critic 
Santra rather thought him indebted to C. Sulpitius Gallus, a man 
of learning ; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, and M. Popilius Lenas, who 
were themselves poets. He was born, according to the same 
authority, after the second Punic war, and died at Stymphalus, or 
Leucadia, in Arcadia, in the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella 
and M. Fulvius Nobilior, and, consequently, u. c. 594. He was 
probably about 34 years of age. Even his personal appearance 
is noticed by his biographer : middle height, slender figure, dark 
complexion. 

We have thus traced Latin Comedy to its meridian : the causes of Latin 
its decline subsequently we shall more conveniently notice when we ^^^ e 
advance to the poetry of the Augustan age ; we will merely observe 
for the present, that the great Eoman critic, with all his literary 
patriotism, could only sum the subject by saying, " In Comcedia 
maxime claudicamus." l The verdict is strange : but even Terence 
did not reach that Attic perfection which Soman criticism justly 
denies to any other section of the Greeks themselves. His 
licentious versification qualified his elegance in the correct and 
disciplined ear of Uuinctilian. 2 The genius of the Koman people 
was earnest and stern ; the language, hard and inflexible ; cir- 
cumstances in which they differed widely from the airy and lively 
Athenians. It is very probable, therefore, notwithstanding the 
positive excellence attained by Eoman poets in this department, 



1 Quinct. x. 1. 



2 Ibid. 



28 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Tragedy. 



Ervrrius. 



that tlieir relative success in imitating the Greek models was less 
in Comedy than in other walks of literature. 

While Thalia had been improving the first essays of Eoman 
genius into regular Comedy, Melpomene was not without her 
votaries. As no regular tragic production anterior to the Augustan 
age has reached us, we must be content to take our estimate of the 
excellence of Roman Tragedy from the opinion of Eoman critics ; 
the fragments extant not being in any instance sufficiently numerous 
or connected to enable us to judge of the merits of whole compo- 
sitions. Many of them, indeed, breathe a spirit of the purest 
poetry; but the diction is, as might be expected from the age, 
harsh and unmodulated. As in Comedy, so in this branch of the 
drama, early excellence was followed by premature decay. The 
best tragedies, for the most part, had been written before the 
language had attained vigorous maturity, and there were causes to 
discourage Tragedy subsequently, which we shall hereafter discuss. 
Horace accuses the Roman tragedians of carelessness and inaccuracy, 1 
while he admits their tragic spirit and the success of their sallies. 
Quinctilian speaks highly of Attius and Pacuvius ; 2 and yet allows 
that their writings were deficient in the last polish, which, however, 
he considers rather the fault of their age than of their talents. The 
Thyestes of Varius, according to this author, was comparable to any 
of the Greek tragedies ; and the Medea of Ovid he considers a 
remarkable evidence of w 7 hat that poet could effect, when he pre- 
ferred the regulation to the indulgence of his genius. 3 A similar 
eulogy on these productions is passed by the author of the Dialogue 
" de Oratoribus : " " Nee ullns Asinii aut Messalce liber tarn illustris 
est quam Medea Ovidii, aut Varii Thyestes.'" Atilius, whom we 
have already noticed as a comedian, translated, or, as Weichert 
conjectures, 4 travestied, the Electro, of Sophocles, in a hard, dry 
style. 5 C. Titius is mentioned as a tragedian by Cicero, but as 
more of an orator, even in his tragedies ; 6 he had, however, the 
honour to be imitated by Afranius. C. Julius Caesar Strabo 
wrote tragedies intituled Teuthras and Adrastus. Other names 
will occur in the course of this memoir. The favourite tragedian 
of Quinctilian, however, was Pomponius Secundus, whose claims to 
priority, while his learning and eloquence were admitted, were yet, 
it seems, disputed at that time. 7 

We have already seen that Livius Andronicus and Nsevius were 
tragedians as well as comedians. Ennius, of whom we shall 
presently have occasion to make more particular mention, com- 

1 Ep. ad Aug. 164—167; De Art. Poet. 239—291. 2 Quinct.x.l. 3 Ibid. 

4 The conjecture is rightly reprobated by B'ahr. (Gescb. der R. L. § 45, anm. 3.) 
Cicero calls the play " male conversa ;" an expression inapplicable to a burlesque. 

6 Cic. de Fin. I. 2. Ep. ad Att. xiv. 20. Suet. Cses. 84 (where a reading is 
Attius). 6 Brut. 45. 7 Quinct. x. 1. 



PACUYITJ8 AXD ATTIUS. 



29 



posed tragedies, and one comedy, the Pancratiastes ; two others, Ennius. 
Anipliitliraso and Ambracia, are attributed to him ; he obtained, 
however, his highest dramatic reputation from his tragedies. But 
it does not appear that they were in any respect more original than 
the Eoman Comedy. The titles which have reached us of his 
tragedies are: — Achilles, Ajax, Alcestis, Alexander, Alcmceon, 
Andromache, Andromeda, Athamas, Cresphon, Cressce, Dulorestes, 
Erechtheus, Pumenides, Hectoris Lutra, Hecuba, Ilione, Ijphigenia, 
Medea, Melanippa, Nemea, Phoenix, Poly dor us, Telamon, Telephus, 
TJiyestes. These names, and those of almost all the Eoman tragedies, 
preserved by Pabricius, {Biblioth. Lat. lib. iv. c. 1,) prove that 
they were commonly translations or imitations from the Greek, 
perpetually 

Presenting Thebes, and Pelops' line, 
And the tale of Troy divine. 

In their tragic metres the Romans were much severer than in 
their comic. They seem, indeed, to have admitted the same 
number of feet in both ; but the iambus occurs much oftener in 
tragedy, and the whole verse is modulated in a manner which makes 
it always perceptible, and sometimes even harmonious. The 
difference which is thus produced between the tragic and comic 
senarii is even greater than that which exists between the hexameters 
of Virgil and those of the satirists. 

As far as we learn, the highest favours of the Tragic Muse were F^Stius 
reserved for Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Attius. 1 Pacuvius, sister's or Actius. ' 
son to Ennius, was born at Brundusium, 
u. c. 534, and died at Tarentum, u. c. 624, 
He was celebrated as a painter as well as a 
poet. The names of his plays on Greek 
subjects are : — Amphion, Anchises, Antiope, 
Armorum Judicium, Atalanta, Chryses, Dulo- 
restes, Hermiona, Iliona, Medea, Niptra, 
Orestes, Peribcea, Teucer. Comedies, inti- 
tuled Mercator, Pseudo, Parent ilia, Tunicu- 
laria, have also been attributed to him. 
Attius was the son of a freedman, born 
u. c. 594, and died about 670. The names 
of his tragedies on Greek subjects are : — 
Achilles, JEgisthus, Agamemnonidce, Alcestis, 
AlcmcBon, Alphesibosa, Amphitruo, Andro- 
meda, Antigona, Antenorida, Argonautce, 
Armorum Judicium, Astyanax, Athamas, 
Atreus, Bacchce, Chrysippus, Clytemnestra, Deiphobus, Biomedes, 

1 The Greek writers give "Kttiqs ; hence most modern scholars have adopted 
this orthography. But there is authority in MSS. and inscriptions for both forms. 




L. Attius. 



30 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Epigoni, Epinausimache, Erigona, Eriphyla, Eurysaces, Ilione, 
Hecala, Hellenes, Medea, Meleager, Melanippa, Myrmidones, Neop- 
tolemus, Nyctegresia, (Enomaus, Paris, Pelopida, Philoctetes, 
Phinida, Phoenissce, Prometheus, Telephus, Tereus, Trachinice} The 
opinion of the critics of Horace's day, 2 — 

Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert 
Pacuvius docti fainam senis, Attius alti, 

is just that of Quinctilian : 3 " virium plus Attio tribuitur ; Pacu- 
vium videri doctioeem qui esse docti affectant volunt." Correctness 
and eloquence seem to have been the great merits of Pacuvius, and 
in these he probably surpassed all other tragedians of his country. 
One interesting circumstance is connected with this poet ; his 
tragedy of Paulus was the first in Latin on a Roman subject. Who, 
however, was the hero of this play, is not apparent. Attius also 
composed tragedies, the subjects of which were Brutus and the 
younger Decius ; a tragedy called Marcellus is also, as we have 
seen, attributed to him. 4 Pacuvius and Attius were patronised 
severally by the celebrated Lselius and Decimus Brutus. Attius 
appears to have been intimate with, and almost a pupil of, Pacuvius. 
His first tragedy was performed under the same aediles as the last 
of his master. 5 He seems to have imitated iEschylus in the lofti- 
ness of his style and subjects. He is called by Ovid " animosi Attius 
oris," 6 and Paterculus attributes to him "more spirit than the 
Greeks possessed ! " 7 " In illis lima, in hoc pene plus videtur fuisse 
sanguinis." A similar expression occurs in Persius concerning 
this writer, which, though it is not meant in commendation, seems 
yet to imply that his fault was turgidity : " venosus liber Atti" s 
Two plays are ascribed to him, Mercator, and Nuptice, which, 
apparently, were comedies. We shall conclude our observations 
on Eoman Tragedy with two extracts from its most celebrated 
authors, in which the reader will readily discover the seeds of many 
well known passages of modern poets. The first is from Attius, of 
whose poetry we have already given a specimen, and is preserved 
by Cicero in the second Book of his Treatise on the Nature of the 
Gods. It describes the astonishment of a shepherd who beheld 
' ' the first bold vessel " from the summit of a mountain ; and is 
written in iambics : — 

■ tanta moles labitur 

Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti sonitu et spiritu : 
Prae se undas volvit ; vortices vi suscitat ; 
Ruit prolapsa ; pelagus respergit ; profluit. 



1 Among tbe works attributed to Attius are Didascalia (perbaps Dramatic 
precepts), Pragmatica, Parerga, and Annales, tbe nature of which can only be 
conjectured from their titles. Ep. ad Aug. 55. Quinct. x. 1. 

4 Dion. Gram. iii. p. 487, Putsch. 5 Cic. Brut, lxiii. 

6 Amor. i. 15. ' Lib. ii. 9. s i. 75. 



TRAGEDY. 



31 



Ita, dum interruptum credas nimbum volvier, Attius. 

Dum quod sublime ventis expulsum rapi 

Saxum, aut procellis, vel globosos turbines 

Existere ictos undis concursantibus ; 

Nisi quas terrestres Pontus strages conciet ; 

Aut, forte, Triton, fuscina evertens specus, 

Subter radices penitus undanti in freto 

Molem ex profundo saxeam ad ccelum eruit. 

The monster bulk sweeps on 
Loud from tbe deep, with mighty roar and panting. 
It hurls the waves before ; it stirs up whirlpools ; 
On, on it bounds : it dashes back the spray. 
Awhile, it seems a bursting tempest-cloud ; 
Awhile, a rock uprooted by the winds, 
And whirled aloft by hurricanes ; or masses 
Beaten by concourse of the crashing waves : 
The sea seems battering o'er the wrecks of land ; 
Or Triton, from their roots the caves beneath 
Upturning with his trident, flings to heaven 
A rocky mass from out the billowy deep. 

The next is from Pacuvius, and describes the storm which assailed Pacuvius. 
the Greek army on its departure from Troy. It is in trochaics : l 

Interea prope jam occidente sole inhorrescit mare ; 
Tenebrae conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbum occaecat nigror ; 
Flamma inter nubes coruscat, ccelum tonitru contremit, 
Grando, mixta imbri largifiuo, subita turbine prsecipitans cadit ; 
Undique omnes venti erumpunt, saevi existunt turbines, 
Fervet sestu pelagus. 

Now the crested billows whiten as the sun is hasting down ; 
Twofold darkness falls around us, night and storm-clouds blind the sight ; 
'Mid the clouds the levin blazes ; trembles heaven beneath the crash ; 
Hail, with torrent rain commingling, bursts in headlong whirlwind down ; 
All the winds rush forth about us ; sweeps the wild tornado round ; 
Boils the sea with glowing fury. — 




1 Cic. de Div. i. 14. Cf. ejusd. Be. Orat. iii. 39. 



32 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace's 

Summary. 



Satire. 



Having concluded, for the present, our remarks on the Eoman 
drama, which had now attained its perfection, and declined as other 
poetry advanced, 1 it may not be deemed impertinent to subjoin 
the review of popular opinion on its writers which Horace has 
transmitted : 

NaBvius in manibus non est, at mentibus baeret 
Psene recens ; aded sanctum est vetus omne poema : 
Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert 
Pacuvius docti famam senis, Attius alti ; 
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro ; 
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi ; 
Vincere Csecilius gravitate ; Terentius arte. 2 

Satirical compositions have always existed in every nation ; 
human excellences and infirmities are alike engaged in promoting 
their popularity. The philosopher and the moralist cannot review 
the follies and vices which degrade and pollute their species, 
without yielding to the expression of virtuous and philanthropic 
indignation; and the malignant passions are gladdened at the 
exposure of another's faults. We have already seen that, in a 
period of the Eoman history when every species of regular poetry 
was unknown, the " malum carmen" or libellous verse, was pro- 
hibited by a statute. The scenic entertainments were the chief 
vehicles of these offensive compositions, as being the most public ; 
and when these were improved into sakira, the " mala carmina 
were so far from being universally discontinued, that they were 
rather more systematically pursued. The introduction of the 
legitimate drama turned them into another channel ; and thus we 
find Naevius adapting the satirical vein of the old Greek comedy to 
the domestic occurrences of his day. The signal example which 
the Csecilian family made of this poet, checked, but could not long 
arrest the current; it soon flowed with redoubled strength and 
impetuosity in another direction; and, while it retained the old 
name of satura, with which, from long association, it seemed 
identified, it so entirely changed its form as to give rise to those 
expressions of Horace and Quinctilian, which have led so many critic? 
to suppose that the old satura was a Eoman invention. As the 
English word Satire is generally applied to this poem, we shall, in 
future, employ it, to distinguish this composition from the satura, 
from which it differed materially in form and excellence, though 
possessing the same name. 



1 " In Attio circaque eum Romana tragcedia est." — Veil. Pat. i. 17. 

2 Ep. ad Aug. 53, seqq. This testimony will be esteemed of more critical 
value than that of Volcatius Sedigitus (Ap. Aul. Gell. xv. 24), in whose pompous 
and dictatorial verses the comic poets rank as follows : Caecilius, Plautus, Naevius- 
Licinius, Atilius, Terence, Turpilius, Trabea, Luscius. Ennius is added " anti, 
quitatis causa " only. 



SATIRE. 33 

To the Satire the Latin writers constantly assign a Eoman origin : 
— *" Satura tota nostra est." 1 — "here, at least, we have drawn 
from our own resources." Yet when we come to examine the 
merits of this solitary pretension to originality, we find them 
admitting that the same sentiments and modes of thinking had 
been common among the Greeks, but then, — they had never 
expressed them in hexameter verse ! Such is the proud title to 
originality which the Romans acquired by altering the versifica- 
tion of the old Greek comedy ! The severity of historical justice 
itself might relent in favour of a claim so rarely made, and so 
weakly supported. Yet this compels us to assert that the origin- 
ality of the Eoman Satire rests on a very slender foundation. It 
may be traced to the aiXkos of the Greeks. Nay, Lucilius himself, 
if we may trust Johannes Lydus, borrowed his form of the Satire, 
hexameters and all, from a Greek writer, Ehindon, " ivho first wrote 
comedy in hexameters." ' 2 Lucilius is asserted by Horace to have been 
the founder of the New Satire ; and, accordingly, he acknowledges 
the earlier poet to be his master and model in this species of com- 
position. But, although Lucilius was the first Eoman who composed 
a regular metrical essay on a satiric subject, the transition from the 
dramatic to this almost didactic form did not take place imme- 
diately. The Satires of Ennius and Pacuvius have not reached us ; Ennian 
those of the latter, indeed, are only mentioned by Diomedes, the Satire - 
grammarian : but the accounts which ancient authors have left us 
of the Ennian Satire, prove that it was the rude, but natural, result 
of the arbitrary proceedings of the Aristocracy, which drove Satire 
from the stage. " Carmen" says Diomedes, 3 " quod ex variis 
poematibus constabat, Satura vocabatur ; quale scripserunt Pacuvius 
et Ennius" By " varia poemata " Diomedes does not mean, as 
Mr. Dunlop understands him, 4 a cento, or mixture of extracts from 
various authors ; but a miscellany of subjects, and a mixture of 
various kinds of metre, wherein dactylic, iambic and trochaic verses 
were promiscuously confounded, after the manner of the Mapyirrjs 
of Homer. This interpretation is warranted by the few fragments 
which remain to us of the Satires of Ennius. They are not, 
indeed, sufficiently numerous to enable us to judge of the 
nature of the poems whence they are taken ; but we learn from 

1 Quinct. x. 1. So Ennius is styled by Horace (I Sat. x. 66.) " Grcecis intacti 
carminis auctor" — language which has been supposed to apply to Lucilius ; a con- 
struction, however, which the context will not admit. Ennius and Lucilius were 
both " auctores," being indeed the founders of different kinds of poetry bearing 
the same appellation, as we shall see immediately. 



TOP 



'PivSowa, t>s e|a,U6Tpo(s eypa\pe irpwros KoojxwhiaV e£ ov irparos 
Aaj8<xJj/ ras acpop/aas AovkiAios 6 "Pw/xalos ypcciKols eirccnu iKufxcfSTjae. He is 
considered the same with Rhinthon, the author of the tragi-comedies : and another 
reading is 'Pivdwva. — Joann. Lydus. de Mag. P.R. 1. 41. 

3 Gram. iii. 485. 4 Hist of Rom. Lit. p. 106. 

[R. l.] d 



34 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Enr.ru? . 



Lucilian 
Satire. 



Aulus Gellius 1 that iEsop's Fable of "the Lark and her Young" 
was versified in one of them, probably introduced in the same 
manner as " the Country Mouse and the City Mouse" in Horace ; 
Quinctilian also tells us 2 that the subject of another was a contest 
between Life and Death. 3 From these slight notices, we may infer 
that the dramatic origin of the Satire was perceptible in its altered 
form ; as, indeed, it is in several of the satires of Horace. Gellius 
subjoins the moral of the Fable, which was written " versibus 
quadeatis," i. e. in trochaic tetrameters : 

Hoc erit tibi argumentum semper in promtu situm : 
Ne quid exspectes amicos, quod tute agere possies. 

Learn from my tale this ready saw and true : 
Ne'er trust your friends for what yourself can do. 

Cicero 4 has preserved some verses of Ennius, of exquisite point, 
which, in all probability, belonged to his Satires, and which we 
subjoin : 

Non habeo denique nauci Marsum Augurem, 
Non vicanos Aruspices, non de Circo Astrologos, 
Non Isiacos conjectores, non iuterpretes somnium ; 
Non enim ii sunt aut scientia, aut arte divini, 5 
Sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque harioli, 
Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat. 
Qui sui quaestus causa flctas suscitant sententias ; 
Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam : 
Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab iis drachmam petunt. 
De divitiis sibi deducant drachmam : reddant caetera. 

I value not a rush your Marsian augurs, 
Your village seers, your market fortune-tellers, 
Egyptian sorcerers, dream-interpreters ; 
No prophets they by knowledge or by skill : 
But superstitious quacks, shameless impostors, 
Lazy, or crazy, slaves of Indigence, 
Who tell fine stories for their proper lucre : 
Teach others the highway, and cannot find 
A by-way for themselves ; promise us riches, 
And beg of us a drachma ; let them give 
Their riches first ; then take their drachma out. 

If this spirited passage be a sample of the Satires of Ennius, 
there is great reason to deplore their loss. But whatever may have 
been their intrinsic merits, their absence is materially injurious to 
the clear understanding of the merits of his successors. 

If, however, the loss of the satiric writings of Ennius and 
Pacuvius be unfortunate for the illustration of the history of 



1 Noct. Att. ii. 29. 2 ix. 2. 3 Quinct.ix. 2. 4 De Div. i. 40. et 58. 

5 This line, if a verse, is manifestly corrupt. It has been accordingly thought 
by some to be an interruption on the part of the speaker ; but the connexion 
seems to forbid this conjecture. The verses themselves are either corrupted, or 
admit many licences. They appear to be a mixture of iambics and trochaics. 



LUCILIUS. 35 

Roman Poetry, that of Lucilius's works is still more so for the Luciiius. 
general interests of literature. Careless and incorrect as this 
author was held by Horace, that great poet has not hesitated con- 
fessedly to imitate his style, and to acknowledge his superiority 
even to himself; an acknowledgment which no student of Horace 
will refer to diffidence of his own powers. In one respect, indeed, 
the resemblance of the two writers is remarkable, if the character 
which Horace gives his master be, in any degree, correct. 1 

Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim 

Credebat libris : neque si male cesserat, usquam 

Decurrens alib, neque si bene. Quo fit ut omnis 

Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella 

Vita senis. 

As friend to friend the secrets of the heart, 
He all he felt did to his books impart ; 
None other his resource, whate'er befel, 
Whether the world dealt ill with him, or well; 
Hence, as in votive tablet fair outspread, 
The poet's life may in his page be read. 

Horace might have drawn this portrait at his mirror. This poet 
has given us a very elaborate judgment on the writings of Luciiius, 2 
from which it appears that he copied the old Greek comedians in 
every thing but metre : 3 

Eupolis, atque Cratinus, Aristophanesque, poetse, 

Atque alii, quorum Comcedia Prisca virorum est : 
■s- * * * * * 

Hinc omnis pendet Luciiius, hosce sequutus, 
Mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque. 

Although Horace accuses him of inelegance in versification, it 
appears from the fragments of his writings collected by the labo- 
rious Francis Dousa, 4 that he rejected the mixed measures of his 
predecessors. The first twenty books of his Satires were in 
hexameters, and the rest, with the exception of the thirtieth 
and last, which was also in hexameters, were in iambics and 
trochaics. 5 He is censured by Horace for being as careless as 
voluminous : the fragments of his works now extant, though 
numerous, are seldom connected ; where they are so, they scarcely 
bear out the charge. The great poet, however, seems less to 

1 II. Sat. i. 30. " I. Sat. iv. et x. 3 I. Sat. iv. 1, scqq. 

4 The merits of Dousa are so high that it would be injustice not to retain this 
notice. But the works now (1850) deserving to be consulted for the best 
acquaintance with Luciiius which can be made are the editions of Corpet, Paris, 
1 845, and Gerlach, Zurich, 1846. 

There is a difference sometimes in the length of the iambic and trochaic 
verses, and dactylics are occasionally intermixed ; but the corruption of the text, 
and the mistakes of grammarians in assigning the quotations, may account for this 
circumstance. 

n -2 



30 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Luciiiu*. condemn Lucilius than to deprecate the excessive admiration of his 
writings which was then fashionable among the literati at Rome. 
Of two faults Lucilius appears to have been clearly guilty ; cor- 
rupting his native tongue with an inordinate admixture of Greek, 
(as some modern English writers, in still viler taste, adulterate theirs 
with French ;) and separating the syllables of a word by a harsh 
and unusual tmesis. The first of these was, absurdly enough, con- 
sidered by his admirers as an excellence, and Horace has been not 
a little severe on the subject : 

* At magnum fecit, quod verbis Graeca Latinis 
Misouit.' O, sen studiorum ! quine putetis 
Difficile et miruin. Rhodio quod Pitholeonti 
Contigit ! 

Of Lucilius's philhellenic propensities the passages remaining to us 
afford ample proof. We shall instance one or two, in order to 
show the validity of the grounds which Horace had for his 
censure. Cicero, in his third book " de Oratore" quotes the 
following : 

Quam lepide Ae£ets compostse ! lit tesserulae omnes 
Arte, pavimento, atque emblemate vermiculato. 

And, afterwards : 

Crassum habeo generum : ne pr)TopiKu>Tepai' tu sis. 

Another instance is not less remarkable : l 

Nunc censes KaAAnrA6nafj.ov KaXXiacpvpov ill.im 

Compernam aut varam fuisse Amphitrvonis anoiriv 
Alcmenam, atque alias, Ledam ipsam denique nolo 
Dicere, tute vide, atque SiavWafioy elige quodvis 
Tyro eupatereiam 2 aliquam rem insignem habuisse, 
Verrucam, naevum pictuin, den tern eminulum unum. 

This style has been occasionally imitated by Juvenal, the professed 
follower of Lucilius. The last mentioned fault of Lucilius has been 
thus illustrated and ridiculed by Ausonius : 3 

Villa Lucani- mox potieris -aca. [for Lucaniaca] 
Rescisso discas componere nomine versum ; 
Lucili vates sic imitator eris. 

Lucilius, however, with these and all his other faults, was a great 
genius and a noble writer, if we can rely on the authority of anti- 
quity. Yarro, according to the testimony of Aulus Gellius, 4 com- 
mends his gracilitas, which expression is explained as conveying 

1 Dous. Rel. Luc. xvii. 1. 

2 Or, Tvpcb evTrarepsiam, as some give it, still mere strangely. 

3 Ep. v. ad Theon. 4 vii. 1 4. 



LUCILIUS. 37 

the complex idea of venustas and suhtilitas ; a criticism suited, Lucilius, 
perhaps, to the time; but, when viewed from a later point of 
literary history, when the Latin language had developed its capa- 
bilities of refinement, palpably inapplicable. Quinctilian, 1 while 
he studiously expresses his dissent from those who would place 
Lucilius on the summit of the Latian Parnassus, (as some even then 
did not hesitate to do) no less decidedly disclaims the censorious 
sentiments of Horace, and praises the learning, freedom, sarcasm, 
and wit of the elder satirist. Pliny and Cicero extol his " urbanitas " 
and " styli nasus" 2 expressions equivalent to those of Horace : 

■ qudd SALE MULTO 



Urbem defricuit — 

and, " Emimcta naris ." and Aulus Gellius calls him " vir apprime 
lingua Latins sciens" 3 The animated description of this poet 
which has been left us by one who, indisputably, had a right to 
criticise him, is in the memory of every scholar : 

Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens 
Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est 
Criminibus : tacita sudant prsecordia culpa. 4 

Oft as Lucilius waves his ruthless sword, 
Guilt-frozen minds glow forth in crimson faces ; 
The labouring heart sweats with the secret sin. 

• The notice of Lucilius by Persius, who, it is said, was excited by 
his tenth book to satirical composition, though less solemn, is not 
less in character : 

Secuit Lucilius urbem ; 
Te Lupe, te Muti : et genuinum fregit in illis. 5 

Lucilius slashed the town ; 
And broke his teeth on Lupus and on Mutius. 

His acquaintance with the Greek comedians furnished him with the 
means of polishing while it sharpened his weapon ; and the pro- 
tection which the friendship of Scipio and Laslius afforded him, 
enabled him to unmask hypocrisy, and to attack with impunity 
vice and folly, however well sheltered in the folds of the Prcetexta. 
Yet was he no less the enemy of plebeian vice : 

Primores populi arripuit, populumque tributim, 
Scilicet uni aequus Virtuti, atque ejus amicis. 

What he considered virtue we learn from a passage preserved to us 
by Lactantius, 6 for the purpose of cavilling at its particulars, 
although it is indeed a noble monument of heathen morality, and 
the source, as this father admits, from which Cicero derived the 

1 Lib. x. 1. 2 Cic de Orat. ii. ; Plin. prsef. Hist. Nat. 3 Noct. Att. xviii. 5. 
4 Juv. Sat. i. 165. 5 i. 114. 6 Inst. Div. vi. 5, 6. 



3S ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Luciius. substance of his Officio,. Horace himself might not have blushed 
to own it : 

Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum, 

Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rcbu', potesse : 

Virtus est homini, scire id, quod quaeque habeat res. 

Virtus, scire bomini rectum, utile quid sit, bonestum : 

Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhoncstum ; 

Virtus, quasrendse rei finem scire modumque ; 

Virtus, divitiis pretium persolvere posse ; 

Virtus, id dare, quod re ipsa debetur honori ; 

Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque maloruiu, 

Contra defensorem hominum morumque bonorum ; 

Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ; 

Commoda prseterea patriae sibi prima putare ; 

Deinde parentum ; tertia jam postremaque, nostra. 

Virtue, Albinus, is the power to give 
Their due to objects amid which we live ; 
What each possesses, faithfully to scan ; 
To know the right, the good, the true for man ; 
Again, to know the wrong, the base, the ill ; 
What we should seek, and how we should fulfil ; 
Honour and wealth at their true worth to prize ; 
111 men and deeds repudiate, hate, despise ; 
Good men and deeds uphold, promote, defend, 
Exalt them, seek their welfare, live their friend ; 
To place our country's interests first alone ; 
Our parents' next ; the third, and last, our own. 

It would be scarcely expected that we should give here anything 
like an analysis of the numerous fragments of Lucilius which 
remain to us. Most of them are disjointed and corrupt ; but some 
are written in the finest spirit of satire : in them the private life 
and public religion of the Eomans, especially their idolatry and 
polytheism, are ridiculed and exposed with the keenest sarcasm. 
Lucilius was essentially the writer of human nature and the people ; 
though a man of learning, he wrote neither for scholars nor for 
the wholly uneducated; 1 his language was exuberant and unpo- 
lished, but free, undisguised, intelligible ; for the present obscu- 
rity of his fragments is no proof of his obscurity in his own day, 
but rather the contrary. The unusual words (where not corrupted) 
are such, because belonging to popular rather than literary lan- 
guage. No writer of obscurities could have attained the popularity 
(as distinguished from the celebrity) of Lucilius. Politics and public 
morals, public and private character, literature, oratory, and the 
drama, were treated by him with a breadth, liveliness, and pun- 
gency, which, while they disarmed the severity of the accurate and 
learned, made him the darling of the general mind. Picturesque 

1 Lucilius, homo doctus et perurbanus, dicere solebat ea quae scriberet neque 
ah indoctissimis se neque a doctissimis legi velle. — Cic. de Orat. ii. 6 ; see De 
Fin. i. 37. 



VARRO. 39 

descriptions, apologues, and adaptations, artfully introduced, con- Lucmus. 
tributed their colour and effect : and though the sentiments, like 
the language, were not always refined, neither was the age, nor the 
audience ; and the indignation of heathen virtue was wont to be 
plain-spoken. The loss of Lucilius's satirical writings is more 
than a literary misfortune. They would have been all-important 
for the illustration of contemporary social life; and while their 
spirit was that of the old Greek comedy, their value as pictures of 
society must have equalled, perhaps surpassed, that of the new. 
Besides his satires, Lucilius wrote a comedy called Nummidaria, to other works 
which, according to Porphyrion, the old scholiast on Horace, that of Lucillus - 
poet alluded in the line 

Pythias, emuncto lucrata Simone talentum. 

He wrote also Epode Hymns, and a poem called Serranus. All 
these works have perished. Horace tells us that the theme of 
some of his poems was his friend, the younger Africanus, whose 
intimacy he cultivated when serving under him at the siege of 
Numantia. 1 Of his life few particulars are known, though his 
poetry was, perhaps, even more than that of Horace, an autobio- 
graphy. He was a Eoman knight, and was born, according to the 
Eusebian Chronicle, at Suessa, in the territory of Auruncum, u. c. 
606, and died u. c. 651. 2 

Marcus Terentius Yarro, born at Eeate u.c. 638, is admitted, by 
the common consent of antiquity, to have been the most learned of 
all the Eomans : and the titles preserved to us of his works prove 
the extent of his information. The doctrines of moral philosophy, varroni 
though personally important to all, were too intimately involved atue * 
with the abstractions of the philosophic schools to reach the 
generality of readers. Yarro, whose profound acquaintance with 
the writings of the philosophers and whose extensive general 
reading peculiarly qualified him for the task, undertook to array in 
a plain, attractive, and popular dress those wise precepts for the 
conduct of life, which before had lain concealed under the cumbrous 
attire of dogmatic philosophy. Such are the motives which Cicero 
makes him assign for the publication of his Menippean, or cynical, 3 
Satires ; * adding however his own opinion, that, although the work 
was diversified, and perfectly elegant, it could only be said to have 

1 See Veil. Pat. Hist. ii. 9. 

2 01. 158, 2. See references for difference on this chronology in Baehr, 
Geschichte der Rom. Litt. ii. 122 ; note 2. The question is also discussed by 
Gerlach (Prolegomena in Lucilii Relliquias), who defends the established com- 
putation. Clinton inclines to amplify the life of Lucilius both ways. 

3 Quas alii cynicas, ipse (Varro) appellat Menippeas. — Aid. Gell. xi. 18. 

4 Acad. i. 2, 3. See the passage, somewhat obscure, treated by Oehler, Com. 
in Varr. iv. : note 3. 



40 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

varro. entered on philosophy ; and, though it had done much towards in- 

citing to philosophical study, it had effected little towards instruction. 
Much the same opinion, as regards the latter part of it, is expressed 
by Diogenes Laertius of Varro's prototype Menippus. 1 As the 
works of both writers are now lost, we must content ourselves with 
Yarro's own assertion in Cicero, that he imitated Menippus without 
translating him : the probability, however, is in favour of the 
superiority of Varro. Menippus indeed, in common with the Sillo- 
graphers, seems to have introduced much more parody than even 
the earliest Roman satirists, if his works did not wholly consist of 
it. In the absence of better information, the " Meuurnos, rj v€<vo- 
fxavTeia " of Lucian may be consulted, where his style is caricatured. 
The satires of Varro, of which the names are preserved, amount 
to one hundred and thirty-seven ; but Oehler diminishes this 
number to ninety-six, considering some of the supposed satires 
to be referable to other heads. The diversity of their subject 
matter may be gathered from the following arbitrary selection of 
titles, comprised under the letter A in Fabricius's alphabetical 
arrangement. Aborigines, ncp\ dvOpooncov cpvaecos. De Admirandis, 
vel Gallus Fundanius. Agatho. Age modo. 'Ah Aifivrj, vel nepl 
aipeaeov. Ajax stramentitius. "AXKos ovtos 'Hpa/cA^s-. "Appov 
perptls, nepl <fii\apyvpias. Andabatce. Anthropopolis, nepi yevedXuucrj?. 
Uepl apxrjs, vel Marcopolis. Ile/n dpxaipio-ecop, vel Serranus. EUpl 
dpsTris KTrjo-eos, vel Trihodites. Wepl dcppobicrimv, vel vinalia. Armorum 
judicium. LTept dpp^vo'r^ros, vel Triphallus. Autumedus, vel Maonius. 
Dacier, in his Essay on the Roman Satires, has collected a few 
fragments cited by ancient authors from the Satires of Varro. But 
the most complete collection is that of Oehler (Quedlingb. and 
Leipz. 1844). The best judgment to be formed of their nature, at 
the present day, may be obtained from the extant Varronian Satire 
of Petronius, the ' AttokoXokvptcoctcs of Seneca, and the Casares and 
Miaonaiyoiv of the Emperor Julian. They seem to have embraced 
subjects of the most diverse description, political and literary, as 
well as philosophical, treated in a satirical vein, in the most 
modern sense of the word ; humorous, however, rather than sar- 
castic, though not devoid of sarcasm. They were of the most 
miscellaneous character in every respect ; and blended prose with 
verse of various metre. 

There can be no doubt that literature has sustained a severe loss 
in the Menippean Satires ; whatever may have been their merit, 
they must have been invaluable as illustrations of contemporary 
life. But the only fragments which exhibit connexion impress us 
with a highly favourable estimate of Varro's poetical powers. We 
subjoin two — the first from the " Marcipor," the other from the 
"Prometheus Liber:" 

vi. 99. 



YARRO. 41 

i. Varro. 

Repente noctis circiter meridie, 
Quum pictus aer fervidislat£ ignibus 

Cceli chorean astricen ostenderet 

* * * * 

Nubes aquali frigido velo leves 
Cceli cavernas aureas subduxerant, 
Aquam vomentes inferam mortalibus. 

Ventique frigido se ab axe eruperant 
Phrenetici Septemtrionum filii, 

Secum fereutes tegulas, ramos, syros. 

* # * * 

At nos caduci, naufragi, ut ciconiae, 
Quarum bipennis fulruinis plumas vapor 
Perussit, alte mcesti in terrain cecidimus. 

Although these fragments are found separately, we agree with 
Oehler in considering them connected portions, and shall translate 
them accordingly. 

All suddenly, about tbe noon of nigbt, 
When far tbe sky, bedropt with fervid fires, 
Displayed the starry firmamental dance, 
The racking clouds, "with cold and watery veil, 
Closed up the golden hollows of the heaven, 
Spouting on mortals Stygian 1 cataracts. 
The winds, the frantic offspring of the North, 
Burst from the frozen pole, and swept along 
Tiles, boughs, and hurricanes of whelming dust. 2 
But we, poor trembling shipwrecked men, like storks 
Whose wings the double-pinioned thunder-bolt 
Hath scorched, fell prone in terror on the ground. 

u. 

Sum ut supernus cortex, aut cacumina 

Morientum in querqueto arborum aritudine. 

* * * * * 

Atque exsanguibus 3 dolore evirescat 4 colos. 

Mortalis nemo exaudit, sed late incolens 

Scytharum inhospitalis campos Vastitas. 

* * * * 

Levis mens nunquam somnurnas imagines 
Adfatur, non umbrantur somno pupulse. 

I am become like outer bark, or tops 

Of oaks, that in the forest die -with drought ; 

My blood is drained; my colour wan with anguish ; 



1 So we prefer rendering inferos to Oehler's frigid interpretation, "Infera 
aqua est aqua ex imbri caduca — Aera&speiend das Wasser auf die Sterblichen." 

2 Syros, according to Nonius, brooms, an impossible interpretation ; but the 
word itself is most probably corrupt. We have considered it as bearing affinity to 
avpfxbs, or crvpcperds — " Sweeping whirlwinds." 

3 Probably exsangui, as Scaliger ; sense and metre requiring it. 

4 Evirescit? 



Cato.— Dirge. 



42 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POKTBT. 

Varro. No mortal hears me; only Desolation, 

That dwells ahroad on Scythia's houseless plain 1 ;. 
My spirit n'er parleys with sleep-gender' d forms ; 
No shade of slumher rests upon my eyelids. 

With the exception of Varro, history furnishes us with the name 
of no eminent satirist between the times of Lucilius and Horace. 
Publius Terentius Varro of Atax is mentioned by Horace l as having 
attempted satire unsuccessfully, in common with " certain others." 
These were, perhaps, Saevius Nicanor, mentioned by Suetonius as 
the author of a satire; Lenaeus, the freedman of Pompey the 
Great, who satirized the historian Sallust; and Valerius Cato, 
author of a piece called Indignatio, on the subject of the loss of his 
patrimony by the soldiers of Sylla, and some amatory poems, of 
which Lydia and Diana were the inspiring muses. 2 

Valerius Cato appears to have enjoyed some reputation as a poet ; but his 

name is chiefly remarkable for the extraordinary and undue interest 
excited among scholars by a work attributed to him by Joseph 
Scaliger, but in the MSS. ascribed to Virgil. The poem is intituled 
Birce ; it is a fierce denunciation of parties who have despoiled the 
writer of his property (the case of Valerius as well as of Virgil 3 ), 
and concludes with a lament for the loss of a beloved Lydia. 
These circumstances, however, are the only evidence in favour of 
Cato's authorship. The Indignatio, with which some suppose the 
Birce identical, was, very probably, no poem. Suetonius calls it 
" libellus ;" and almost immediately adds, " scripsit prater gram- 
maticos libellos, etiam poemata." Jacobs regards the Birce as two 
fragments of distinct poems; to the former of which alone the 
title properly belongs ; the latter was, he conceives, probably 
intituled lydia. The University of Jena thought the question of 
sufficient importance to propound an inquiry into the origin, 
integrity, and period of the poem, as the subject for a prize. Much 
learning has been expended in the investigation, but to very 
little purpose, whether we regard the claims of the poem, or the 
light which has been thrown on it. Hermann has satisfactorily 
shown that there is very slight internal evidence for attributing 
any part of it to Valerius Cato. But indeed the subject, except for 
the exaggerated importance given to it by the labours of the learned, 
would scarcely merit notice in these pages. 4 

We shall now return to Nsevius, whose dramatic productions we 
have already noticed, in order to trace the progress of the Latin 

Epocepia- Epopoeia. Whatever the ingenuity and enthusiasm of some adven- 
turous modern critics may have conjectured, there is every reason 
to believe that this author was the first who composed a regular 

1 Horace, i. Sat. x. 46. 3 Suet, de 111. Gram, v., xi. et xv. 3 Ibid. xi. 
4 See Hermann's Ahhandlungen und Beitrage zur class. Litt. und Alter- 
thumsk. vi., where the subject is abundantly yet compendiously discussed. 



N^VITJS. THE EPOPGEIA. 43 

epic in Latin. Nsevius patriotically neglected the brilliant fictions Naevius. 
and luxurious imagery of Greece, to sing in austerer strains the 
triumphs of Duillius, and the sufferings of Kegulus. His poem on 
the first Punic war, in which he served, — a poem of which very 
inconsiderable fragments remain, was divided into seven books by 
C. Octavius Lampadio, the grammarian, as we learn from Suetonius. 
Cicero compares this work to the sculptures of Myron, not exact, 
but pleasing, and even beautiful; and accuses Ennius of plagiarising 
from it in his Annates : and even Yirgil himself has not disdained 
to have recourse to the imagery of Nsevius, as is observed by 
Macrobius, who informs us that the latter poet describes the 
Trojans tost in a storm ; Yenus complaining to Jupiter thereon, 
and Jupiter consoling his daughter with the hope of future glories ; 
all which circumstances are narrated in the first Mneid. It is to 
Nsevius, perhaps, that we are indebted for the anti-Punic spirit of 
the latter poem ; a spirit which must have considerably died out 
of the national mind in the days of Yirgil, but which, in those of 
Naevius, was the popular passion. 

The metre used by Nsevius was that called the Saturnian. The ^ r ™ n 
name is supposed to be derived from Saturnus, and to be identical 
with Italian, Italy being called Satumia tellus. But this metre is 
admitted to be of Greek extraction by Terentianus Maurus, and is 
proved to be of Greek usage by Bentley. 1 It appears, indeed, to have 
been invented by Archilochus. Notwithstanding, Mr. Macaulay 
inclines to think the coincidence may be fortuitous, and gives some 
curious instances in proof that the Saturnian measure is the natural 
versification of a rude and simple period in all languages. His 
old German and English specimens are as perfect as the different 
principles of accentual and temporal versification allow ; his Spanish 
examples are only approximations. At the same time, he admits 
that the metre may have been early introduced into Latium from 
some of the Greek cities of Italy. 2 It was, at all events, naturalised 
among the Romans from a very early period. 

The nearest metrical definition of this famous verse is an iambic 
hephthemimer, followed by a trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic. The 
latter portion of the verse was preserved with tolerable uniformity. 
The former ordinarily admitted every foot admissible into any part of 
an iambic verse ; but we have no means of inquiring minutely into 
the laws of a metre of which few examples are preserved; laws 
which, it is evident, were extremely lax. So lawless, indeed, was 
the construction of the Saturnian verse, that Attilius Eortunatianus 
asserted that he scarcely knew what verses of Nsevius to select as a 
specimen. 3 " Nostri antiqui (says he), usi sunt eo, non observatd 
lege, nee uno genere custodito inter se versus ; sed, prteterquam quod 

1 Diss, on Epist. of Phalaris. xi. - Pref. to Lays of Anc. Rome. 

3 De Doctr. Metr. xxvi. 






44 ANTE-ATJGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

durissimos fecerunt, etiam alios breviores, alios longiores inseruerunt, 
ut vix invenerim apud Navium quos pro exemplo ponerem." 

The great name of Niebuhr seems here to challenge a notice, 
which a theory scarcely worthy of it would not otherwise have 
claimed at our hands. Contrary to the universal testimony of 
antiquity, 1 he makes the Saturnian verse altogether accentual, while 
yet his accent does not correspond to the long syllable, or even 
the arsis, of the true Saturnian verse. " The prevailing character 
of the Saturnian verse," he observes, " is that it consists of a fixed 
number of feet of three syllables each. The number of feet is 
generally four, and they are either bacchics or cretics, alternating 
with spondees. Sometimes the cretics predominate, and some- 
times the bacchics ; when the verses are kept pure, the movement 
is very beautiful ; but they are generally so much mixed that it is 
difficult to discern them. This ancient Eoman metre occurs 
throughout in Roman poetry down to the seventh century [ab 
urbe cond.~\. I have collected a large number of examples of it, and 
discovered a chapter of an ancient grammarian with most beautiful 
fragments, especially from Nsevius. I shall publish this important 
treatise on the Saturnian verse ; for the grammarian really understood 
its nature." 2 

It is no disrespect to the memory of the great man whose words 
we have given, to say that he was ardent and imaginative ; and he 
certainly seems, in this instance, to have been diverted by these 
dispositions from that plain track which they sometimes enabled 
him to pursue with greater success than might have attended a 
colder temperament. It is a strong presumption against his theory 
that it will not quadrate with those undoubted Saturnian verses 
which antiquity has transmitted to us ; that the examples scattered 
throughout his works are so unlike verses, that any chapter of 
Livy might with equal effect be similarly distributed; that the 
epitaphs of the Scipios, whereon, as we have seen, his testimony is 
self-contradictory, are included in the number of examples ; 3 and 

1 We do not except even Servius (ad Virg. Georg. ii. 385) : " Carminibus 
Satumio metro compositis, quod ad rhythmum solum vulgares componere consue- 
verimt." For his text shows that he is speaking of rude extemporaneous effusions ; 
and the very term vulgares appears to distinguish their authors from such writers 
as Nsevius. But it may serve to clear up some part of the confusion in which the 
subject is involved. It is probable that the term Saturnius, which was used for old- 
fashioned, may have often been employed to designate the rude rhythmical verses of 
barbarous times, quite independently of its more restricted and artificial acceptation. 

2 Lectures on Hist, of Rom. i. Schmitz's transl. Though Niebuhr uses the 
terms of Greek prosody, we must understand him to substitute the acute accent 
for the long syllable. 

3 The epitaph on C. Lucius Scipio is thus scanned by Niebuhr: 

Cornelm' Luciu' Scipio Barbatus 
Gnaivo prognatu,' fortis vir sapie'nsque, &c. 
Whereas the second line (if we must so call it) is Cnaivod patre prognatus, &c. 



SATURNIAN VERSE. 45 

that none of his instances have the smallest affinity with those 
verses which antiquity has preserved to us as unquestionably 
Saturnian. The grammarian of whom he speaks is Charisius. 
Niebuhr took a copy of a treatise Be Versu JSaturnio, ascribed to 
that writer, from a MS. in the Bourbon Museum at Naples. This 
copy is supposed to have perished in a fire which took place in 
Niebuhr' s house some short time before his death. But a copy 
has been since taken by Miiller, which has been edited with a fac- 
simile by Prorector Gieseler, of Gottingen. From his pamphlet l 
we glean the following particulars : — 1. The MS. contains several 
treatises beside that of Charisius, and several of these are interposed 
between the undoubted works of Charisius and the chapter in question, 
which is even headed, apparently in the same hand — " Liber s'cti 
Columhani" True it is, that these words may indicate the monastery 
to which the book belonged, not its author ; still, however, there 
is no evidence that the treatise is the work of Charisius. 2. The 
treatise contains only two pages, which originally consisted of four 
columns ; but the two outer columns have perished ; consequently the 
whole is but a fragment. The hand is exceedingly bad, the abbrevia- 
tions numerous, and the text, as set forth by Gieseler, confessedly 
and palpably corrupt ; although he perhaps has made it out with 
all the probability the case admits. 3. The "beautiful fragments" 
amount to three, which we append, that our readers may see the 
foundation on which Niebuhr' s ambitious structure reposes. None 
are from Nsevius ; the first is evidently from Lcevius, who is often 
confounded with him. Lsevius, however, was a much later poet, about 
650 u.c, author of pieces called Erotopagnion [liber] and Centauri; 
and, being distinctly an imitator of the Greeks, was very unlikely 
to have employed the Saturnian verse at all, which doubtless, like 
others of the same school, he held in contempt. The name of the 
poet is indeed lost, except the two first letters, which are indis- 
putably Le ; and the quotation, specifying the Erotopcegnion, leaves 
no doubt of the author. Thus it stands in Gieseler' s edition — 
" Venus, amoris altrix, genetrix cupiditatis, in quam diem plenum 
hilarulum prsepundere fas est opitulae tuse ac ministrae. Tametsi 
neutiquam quid foret ex pavida gravi dura fera asperaque famula 
potui de domino accipere superbo." In the MS. we have q for 
quam, p'pundere for prcepundere (whatever that may mean), oppetidce 
clearly for opitulce. The tametsi neutiquam of Gieseler is no less 
clearly tarn et sine uti qua in the MS. ; the gravi is gravis ; the famula 
is famultas ; the de domino is dominio. The word fas Gieseler thinks 
may as well be sese ; to which we add, we think it may as well be 
anything else. The following two fragments are from Attius : — 

1 Academise Georgise Augustae Prorector J. C. L. Gieseler, D. cum senatu 
successorern in summo magistrate academico Frider. Bergmann, D. civibus suis 
honoris et officii causa commendat. — Gottingse, 1841. 



46 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

I. " Quid istoc gnata unicli est demum . . eel br . . . . prome . . . 
to expete . . timida me tecto excies." II. " Sed jam Amphilochum 
hue vadere cerno et nobis datur bona pausa loquendi in tempus 

obviam." Such are the examples on which a new 

theory of the Saturnian verse, in direct opposition to the testimony 
of all antiquity, is to be constructed ! 4. Finally, the theory itself 
is thus propounded in Gieseler's version : — " Sunt item Saturnii 
quinum denum et senum denum pedum, in quibus similiter novum 
genus pedum est et ipsum ametron. De quibus nihil prsccipitur 
eoque nomen aptius quidem est." Not a very intelligible definition 
truly ! but we give the original form — " St' (or SP, or El') item 
Saturnii quin' denum e . i . indeni . . . pedum in q'bz similit' 
novum genus pedum est eipsu ametron " (perhaps) " de qb. n 1 
p'cipit' eoq no'e aptior quidem e\" The nomen aptius of Gieseler 
should be nomine aptior. We are not obliged to reconcile any 
portion of this scrap with rules of grammar — a task too hard for 
its learned editor himself. It is surely manifest, that on such a 
foundation it is quite incompetent to raise the theory of an 
accentual, nonmetrical Saturnian verse, in the poetry of Naevius 
and regular writers, in the face too of the positive testimony 
afforded by writers well acquainted with it : and the name of 
Niebuhr is our only apology for having dwelt on the subject. 

A poem, called the Cyprian Iliad, has been attributed to Nasvius : 
it was a translation from a poem called to. Kvnpia, falsely ascribed 
to Homer. Hermann, 1 with great probability, imagines that the 
grammarians, deceived by the resemblance of names, have ascribed 
to this author a work of Lsevius, with whom, as we have seen, 
Naevius has been confounded by Niebuhr himself. Others attribute 
this poem to Ninnius Crassus. As this composition was written in 
hexameters, it is extremely improbable that it was the production 
of Nsevius ; there being little doubt that this measure was intro- 
duced in regular poetry by Ennius, who first familiarised his 
countrymen with the epic Muse of Greece. That Ennius was the 
first who composed Latin hexameters, is no where, indeed, expressly 
stated ; bat Lucretius intimates that he had made some important 
improvements in Latin poetry : — 

■Qui primus amoeno 



Detulitex Helicone perennem fronde coronam, 
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret. 2 

Hermann, however, relies more on the derision which Ennius cast 
upon the Saturnian verses, and contends that this alone is a 
sufficient proof that he was the original importer of the hexameter. 
Although the logic of the philologist in this conclusion is scarcely 
equal to his criticism, there is every reason to believe that the 

1 Ap. Gesner. Thes. Ling. Lat. voc. Saturnius. - Lucret. i. 18. 



ENNIUS. 47 

hexameter was not used before the time of Ennius in any com- 
position of extent or importance. 

It is possible, however, that, out of regular literature, the 
hexameter was known to the Komans. The Oracles of Marcius, Marcian 
according to Livy, existed before the battle of Cannse, that is, not 0lacles - 
later than the five hundred and thirty-third year of Eome, or, before 
Ennius completed his eighteenth year. These verses are supposed 
by some critics to have been written in hexameters, while others con- 
tend that their metre was the Saturnian. To us, with all their corrup- 
tion, they appear to contain indubitable traces of the former measure ; 
but it seems not unlikely that their original form was Greek. 

The Epopceia, which Nsevius had successfully originated, was 
still more successfully cultivated by Ennius. This illustrious and Ennius. 
almost universal poet, to whom we have already had frequent 
occasion to refer, was born at Eudiee, in Calabria, in the five hundred 
and fifteenth year of Eome. He was a man 
of unusual learning and accomplishments. 
He boasted that he had three hearts; a 
quaint and enigmatical way of expressing his 
familiarity with the Greek, Latin, and Oscan 
languages. 1 Silius Italicus 2 represents him 
serving as a centurion under Titus Manlius, 
in the war which the Eoman government 
carried on against its rebel subjects in 
Sardinia. Tn that island he resided till he 
was brought to Eome by the elder Cato ; who, 
as we observed before, censured the Consul Ennius. 

Nobilior for his patronage of the same poet. 

Tiraboschi suggests a probable account of this inconsistency of Cato, 
supposing that he rather honoured Ennius as a warrior than as a 
poet, 3 in which latter character he was patronised by the Consul. 
Certain it is that his military, no less than his poetical, excellence, 
has been the theme of commendation ; according to Claudian, 4 he 
accompanied the elder Africanus in many of his expeditions: but this 
is inconsistent with what other authors relate of the disposal of his 
time during the campaigns of that illustrious captain. He was also 
intimate with Scipio Nasica, and the two Nobiliores, Marcus and 
Quintus, the former of whom, as we have already seen, he attended 
in his iEtolian campaign ; and the latter procured him the freedom 
of Eome. Cherished and courted as he had been by the great, he 
was left, in old age and exhaustion, like the worn out Olympian 
courser, 5 to which he compares himself, to poverty and neglect. 

1 Anl. Gell. xvii. 17. 2 p un xii 393t 

3 Storia della Lett. Ital. part iii. lib. ii. c. 1. 4 De Laud. Stil. iii. prsef. 
5 Cic. de Senect. v. 




48 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Ennius. But his genius was of a proud and enduring cast ; and in those 
sensibilities which, in their violation, have so often proved fatal to 
the poet, he seems to have but slightly participated. An exalted 
consciousness of the dignity of genius was a possession which 
neither years nor destitution could take away; and this so far 
supported him under the miseries of both, that he exulted in his 
independence on their power. His feelings are strongly pourtrayed 
in the epitaph which he composed for himself : 

Aspieite, 6 cives, senis Enni imagini' formam. 

Hie vestrum panxit maxima facta patruni. 
Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nee funera fletu 

Faxit. Cur? volito vivu' per ora virum. 

Ho, countrymen ! old Ennius 1 form behold, 
Who sang your martial sires' achievements bold. 
No tears for me ! no dirges at my grave ! 
I live upon the lips of all the brave. 

After his death, which happened u.c. 585, his memory was, it is 
said, honoured with a marble statue, erected in the family sepulchre 
of the Scipios. 1 

To the severe injury of the literary world, time has spared us 
only detached fragments of the poems of Ennius, the best collections 
of which are those made by Columna and Merula, with copious 
annotations. From them their author appears to have been what 
Scaliger designates him, a poet of splendid genius ; yet, though 
the veneration which the Eoman critics, who called him a second 
Homer, entertained for this poet, was the most implicit and 
unqualified, it is probable that much of his popularity among his 
contemporaries is chiefly referable to the novelty of the wonders 
which his Muse, opening the exhaustless treasures of Grecian, 
poesy, disclosed. Ennius, however, arrogated to himself the title 
of Homer, whose soul he feigned to have passed into his own body, 
after migrating through that of a peacock ; which most unpoetical 
metempsychosis has afforded amusement to Horace and Persius. 2 
Horace, indeed, is bold enough to tell the admirers of the father of 
Eoman poetry, that the truth of his Pythagorean dreams is not 
always borne out by his productions. Yet it cannot be doubted 
that the poetry of Ennius was, in general, lofty and dignified, of 
stern and solemn grandeur, although destitute of polish and orna- 
ment. Quinctilian has left us a picturesque description of his 
style, the correctness of which is avouched no less by the testimony 
of antiquity, and the extant fragments of the poet, than by the 
judgment of the critic. " We regard Ennius with a kind of 
adoration, like groves which have acquired sanctity from antiquity, 

1 Cic. pro Arch. Poet. ix. ; Liv. xxxviii. 56 ; Plin. vii. 31. 
2 Ep. ad Aug. 50, segq. — Sat. vi. 10. 



ENNIUS. 49 

where vast and aged trunks are not so remarkable for beauty as for Ennius. 
a kind of religious solemnity." ' Even in the fastidious age of 
Augustus, Yitruvius was bold enough to say " All whose minds are 
imbued with the beauties of literature must have the image of the 
poet Ennius, like those of the gods, consecrated in their breasts." 2 
The rules of elegant construction, which critics have compiled from 
the practice of Yirgil and Ovid, were entirely unknown to Ennius, 
whose hexameters exhibit nothing beyond the bare measure of that 
verse. The harsh elision of the final s is also of frequent occurrence 
in his extant writings. 

Yirgil has imitated no author more liberally than Ennius. It 
would not fall within the nature of this work to quote the several 
passages ; but the reader, who is desirous of knowing how much 
the " Prince of Roman Poets " borrowed from the elder bard, may 
consult, in particular, the two first chapters of Macrobius's sixth 
book of the Saturnalia. The title of Ennius's great work was 
Annates ; it comprised the history of Eome from its foundation to 
the termination of the Histrian war. The first Punic war was omitted, 
as Ennius himself affirms, because others had written it : — 



scnpsere alii rem 

Versibu' quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant, 
Quum neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat, 
Nee dicti studiosus erat ; 

hence Cicero takes occasion to observe that he seemed unwilling to 
risk a competition with the bards he so much affected to despise. 3 
Nsevius was certainly pointed at in these verses. The Annates, as 
Suetonius informs us, 4 were divided into books 5 by the grammarian 
Yargunteius, who recited them publicly ; a custom which long 
prevailed in Italy, since we learn from Gellius that there was in his 
time, at Puteoli, a person who read the verses of Ennius to the 
public, 6 and who was called an JEnnianist (JEnnianista). The cast 
which this poem of Ennius gave to the Eoman literary and civil 
character was extremely powerful, and Seneca affirms 7 that Yirgil 
was compelled to sacrifice his judgment to the prejudices of an 
" Ennian Public " (Ennianus popidus), as this author calls the 
Eomans. To make an epic interesting to this people, it was always 

1 Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoramus, in quibus grandia et antiqua 
roborajam non tantam habent speciem, quantam relligionem. — Lib. x. 1. The 
Ovidian character, Ennius ingenio maximus, arte rudis, is as felicitous in matter 
as in expression. 

2 Qui litterarum jucunditatibus instinctas habent mentes non possunt non m 
suis pectoribus dedicatum habere, sicut deorum, sic Ennii poeto3 simulacrum. — 
Vitr. ix. prsef. 15. 3 Brut. xix. 4 De 111. Gram. ii. 

5 According to Aulus Gellius, 12, or as other copies, 18 ; from Pliny (vii. 27) 
we should infer 16. 

6 Noct. Att. xviii. 5. 1 Apud Aul. Gell. xii. 2. 

[k. L.] E 



50 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Ennuis. necessary that it should be national ; and Virgil, with all his art, 
was yet obliged to connect his poem with the Roman fortunes. 
Even Ovid, in a work not altogether pretending to the flights of 
the Epopoeia, felt the necessity of conciliating his readers by 
enlarging on the mythological and historical glories of the Empire. 
The influence and popularity of Ennius, therefore, long survived 
his diction ; and poets who contemned its rudeness and want of 
modulation were yet compelled, by the strength of popular opinion, 
to reverence and emulate the grandeur of his genius, and, in their 
journey to the temple of Fame, to indulge in very limited excursions 
from the track of his steps. 

The fragments of the Annals of Ennius are so numerous, and, in 
general, so well known, that it would be difficult to select passages, 
and almost superfluous, to all purposes of illustration, to quote them. 
There is, however, a singularly beautiful fragment of his poem on 
the exploits of Scipio, preserved by Macrobius, 1 which is less 
known, and which we shall here adduce : 

• Mundus coeli vastus constitit silentio, 



Et Neptunus seevus undeis aspereis pausam dedit ; 
Sol equeis iter repressit unguleis volantibus ; 
Constitere amnes perennes : arbores vento vacant. 

the universe of heaven stood in silence motionless; 



Stern Neptunus for a season bade the roughening billows pause ; 
And the sun refrained the rushing of his pinion-footed steeds ; 
Paused the ever-flowing rivers ; not a breath is on the boughs. 

Columna supposes that this poem was written in hexameters, except 
the procemium or introduction ; as the other few fragments extant 
are in that measure. Horace speaks in terms of high commendation 
of the Scipio .- 2 

Non incisa notis marmora publicis, 
Per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis 
Post mortem ducibus ; non celeres fugse, 
Rejectaeque retrorsum Hannibalis minae ; 
Non incendia Carthaginis impiae, 
Ejus qui domita nomen ab Afric& 
Lucratus rediit, claries indicant 
Laudes, quam Calabrae Pierides. 

Not marbles traced with public grief, 
Whereby to the departed chief 
Life is restored : not foes o'erthrown, 
And Hannibal's fierce threat hurled down ; 
Not Carthage proud in ashes laid, 
More brightly hath his praise displayed 
Who bore his vanquished Afric's name, — 
Than the Calabrian's strain of fame. 



1 Sat. vi. 4. 2 iv. Od. 8. 



LUCRETIUS. 5 1 

The example of Ennius was followed by Hostius, who composed Enmua. 
a poem called Annates; and another on the Histrian war. The 
title Annates was a favourite with Koman poets. It was adopted 
by Aulus Eurius, of Antium, and Yolusius, the butt of Catullus. 

Ennius was also a didactic poet, although so few fragments of Didactic 
his essays in this way are extant, that it is impossible to pronounce P° elr y- 
on their merits. One of his poems was called Phagetica, or Hedy- 
pathia — a translation or adaptation from Archestratus — and was a 
treatise on eatables. He wrote also epigrams, and poems called 
Protrepticiis, Prcecepta (possibly two titles of the same work), 
Asotus, Sotadicus (to which also the same observation will apply), 
and some works in prose. But some of the above titles, if not 
all, may possibly belong to his Satires. He composed also a 
poem called Euhemerus, a free criticism of the Greek mythology. 
But the noblest strain of his didactic muse was his translation of 
Epicharmus, On tJie Nature of Things ; a poem which, apparently, 
excited the emulation of Lucretius, whose work was destined to 
obscure its fame. 

Titus Lucretius Cams was born probably at Eome, u. c. 659, Lucretius. 
and died at the age of forty-three, on the day when Yirgil assumed 
the toga virilis ; l and, as some affirm, by his own hand. 2 As his life 
connects the periods, so his poem 
forms the link between the old and 
new schools of Latin heroics (we use 
the word as regards the versification), 
between,Ennius on the one hand, and 
the Augustan poets on the other. 
It differs, indeed, from the didactic 
poetry of Hesiod and Yirgil, as it is 
occupied rather in stating and rea- 
soning on philosophical facts, than in 
delivering practical precepts. Still, 
it is strictly didactic, according to the 
derivation of the term. The philo- 
sophy of Lucretius, as such, it would 
be irrelevant here to discuss ; yet we Lucretias. 

may remark that its tendency was to 

suppress, rather than to kindle, the spirit of poetry. The doctrine 
which removed man from all connexion with a higher state ; which 
represented him, by nature, scarcely superior to the brute, and de- 
graded by superstition ; which regarded with the severest intolerance 
the most beautiful creations of fancy, and which stigmatised, as un- 
manly and unphilosophical, some of the most amiable virtues of the 

1 Donat. in Vit. Virgil, ii. But the authority of Donatus is valueless, and Heyne 
even regards the passage as an interpolation. 

2 Hieronviu. Chron. Euseb. 

E 2 




v o:t 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Lucretius. 



Peculiarity 
of his style. 



human breast, could scarcely be expected to develope itself sucr 
fully in poetry. Yet these disadvantages Lucretius completely over- 
came. His poetical studies at Athens, and a discriminating judgment, 
united, as is rarely the case, with a strong poetical enthusiasm, 
which the cold and selfish theories of Epicurus, so far from sup- 
pressing, only enlisted in their active service, enabled him to perform 
his task. The object of Lucretius appears to have been two-fold ; 
to introduce to his countrymen in the most alluring colours what he 
conceived to be the important, though repulsive, dogmata of 
Epicurus ; and to polish and enrich the Latin language ; for which 
latter design his extensive acquaintance with the Greek writers, and 
the profound reverence with which he studied them, rendered him 
eminently qualified. With this view he adopted an antiquated 
style, as Spenser did at an analogous period of our own poetical his- 
tory ; judging, perhaps, that the language, taken in its youth, would 
be more flexible, and more susceptible of the character with which 
he wished to impress it, than in its nearer advance to maturity. On 
this account, although the harmony of the Latin hexameter is far 
from perfection in the lines of Lucretius, the language of his poem 
is elaborately poetical. He complains, indeed, of the poverty of his 
native tongue, and the difficulty of applying it to the illustration of 
a subject so new to his readers as the speculations of the Greek 
philosophy : 

Nee me animi fallit, Graiorum obscura reperta 
Difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse, 
Multa novis verbis praesertiin quum sit agendum ; 
Propter egestatem linguae, et rerum novitatem. 

But he has completely mastered this difficulty, and almost removed 
it from subsequent writers, by enriching the language in a degree 
perhaps wholly unparalleled in the history of Latin poetry. The cold 
and stiff commendation of Quinctilian, " elegans in sua materia," 1 
will be readily exchanged by scholars for the generous eulogium of 
Ovid: 

" Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, 
Exitio terras quum dabit una dies." 2 

Yet the term " difficilis," which the critic applies to Lucre- 
tius, is justified by his archaisms, and by the difficulties of his 
philosophy, which appear, by Cicero's account, completely to 
have overwhelmed Sallustius, the writer of the Evipedoclea. 3 
According to St. Jerome, 4 the noble poem of Lucretius was composed 
during the intervals of an insanity, produced by drinking a philter. 

1 x. 1. 2 Amor. i. 15. 

3 Virum teputabo, si Sallustii Empedoclea legeris : bominem non putabo. — Cic. 
ad Quinct. Frat. ii. 11. Orelli supposes this Sallustius to be Cnaeus, the client of 
Cicero. 4 Chron. Euseb. 



CICERO. 



53 




Of the poetry of Cicero, who followed Lucretius in his didactic Cicero. 
career, and who, if we are to believe the same author, corrected his 
poem, 1 it is usual to speak in terms of 
disparagement. It is, however, to be 
recollected that the Phenomena and Prog- 
nostica are translations, and from no very 
poetical writer. They were written by 
Cicero when very young, 2 although it is 
true that they were approved by him in 
bis riper years. They afford a great con- 
trast both to the inartificial versification 
and poetic fire of his contemporary, 
Lucretius. But the poetic powers of Cicero 
are to be best determined from the frag- 
ments of his historical poems Be Consulatu, Cicero. 
and Be Temporibus suis ; and these cer- 
tainly do not entitle him to the highest honours of the lyre. ]t 
is, however, extremely unfair to cite, as a specimen of his general 
ability, that well-known line from a poem on the events of his own 
time : 

fortunatam natam me consule Romam ! 

As well might we judge the genius of Ennius from a similar jingle : 

O Tite, tute, Tati, tilii tanta, tyranne, tulisti. 

Voltaire has fallen into the opposite extreme ; 3 and, delighted with 
some verses of Cicero's Marius, which unquestionably are highly 
spirited, pronounces Cicero at once " one of the first poets of his 
age," and balances him against Lucretius ; asserting that it was 
totally impossible for him to have been the author of the obnoxious 
verse above quoted. The following is the passage of the Marius 
alluded to : — 

Hie Jovis altisoni subito pennata satelles, 
Arboris e trunco, serpentis saucia rnorsu, 
Ipsa feris subigit transfigens unguibus anguem 
Semianimum, et varia graviter cervice micantem ; 
Quern se intorquentem lanians, rostroque cruentans, 
Jam 6atiata aminos, jam duros ulta dolores, 
Abjieit efflantem, et laceratum affligit in undas, 
Seque obitu a Solis nitidos convertit ad ortus. 



1 Bernhardy, after Lachmann, supposes (Cresch. der Rom. Lit. Anm. 398) 
Quintus Cicero, brother of the orator, to be meant. This opinion is derived from an 
expression in a letter from the latter, but it rests on a very slender foundation: 
Lucretii poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt non multis luminibus ingemi, multce tamen 
artis. — Cic. ad Quinct. Frat. ii. 11. 

2 " Admodum adolescent ido." — Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 14. 

3 Pref. a la Trag. de Catilina. 



54 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Cj cero# The plumed attendant of high-thundering Jove, 

Stung by a serpent, rested on a tree, 
And his fierce talons through his torturer drove ; 
Who writhes his spotted neck in agony, 
Struggling, though mangled and half-dead ; but lit-, 
The imperial bird, fares on his vengeful way ; 
Rends with red beak his coiling enemy, 
Then to the waves the torn and panting prey 
Flings forth, and from the west soars to the rising day. 

Other poems of Cicero are Pontius Glaucus, mentioned by 
Plutarch, 1 Haley one, Uxorms, Nilus, Tamelastis, of which we know 
only the names ; it being doubtful whether even these are correctly 
reported. The Limon (Acipow) appears to have been a book of 
epigrams. 

The universal neglect or contempt with which the poetry of 
Cicero was treated by contemporary and subsequent readers of 
Latin literature, is very remarkable. It was alike despised by the 
philarchaic school, and by the idolaters of Greek perfection : nor 
could this be the result of political prejudices, as all parties 
concurred in the most unqualified admiration of his speeches and 
philosophical writings, which as models of prose are unsurpassed. 2 
Plutarch indeed speaks of him as the " best poet of the Komans" in 
his time, but soon obscured by others of higher merit. 3 But if the 
poetical excellence of Cicero had been eminent, he would not have 
been more obscured than Lucretius or Catullus. Nay, it may well 
seem that the poetry must have been heavy which even the name of 
such a writer could not keep afloat. The brother of Cicero, Quintus 
Tullius, who wrote a poem on the Zodiac, seems to have been 
a most prolific writer ; for his brother compliments him on having 
despatched four tragedies in sixteen days. 4 The Mectra, the Troas, 
and the Urigone, are mentioned at the same time : whether these 
were included in the four, it is not possible to say. 
Catullus. Caius (or Quintus) Valerius Catullus was born, according to the 

Eusebian Chronicle, at Verona, u. c. 667. Of his life few particu- 
lars are known. He seems to have loved privacy, and lived for the 
most part at his villa at Sirmio, enjoying the society of literarv 
friends. He visited Bithynia in company with his brother, whose 
early loss he passionately deplores. His Lesbia, according to 
Apuleius, 5 was a real person, whose name was Clodia; she would 

1 Vit. Ciceronis, ii. 

2 A very remarkable instance of this occurs in Juvenal (Sat. x. 124) : 

Ridenda poemata malo, 



Quam te, conspicuae divina Philippica famae, 
Volveris a primo quae proxima. 

See also L. Seneca de Ira, iii. 37. M. Seneca Declam. iii. Dial, de Orat. 21. 
s In Vita, ii. 4 Ep. ad Quinct. iii. 6. 5 Apol. x. See Ov. Trist. II. 428. 




CATULLUS. 5 

have little deserved the affection of a purer poet than Catullus, and Catullus, 
by him she was eventually renounced. According to the Eusebian 
Chronicle he died at the age of thirty years ; which is manifestly 
untrue, if the date of his birth be correct; for he alludes to the 
consulship of Yatinius, 1 and must there- 
fore have lived at least ten years longer. 
Unlike Lucretius, his contemporary, he 
wrote in the style of his own day; and, by 
the excellence, no less than the diversity 
of his compositions, may claim honourable 
competition with most subsequent poets. 
In management of the hexameter, and in 
force of description, his Peleus and Thetis 
may be compared with the happiest efforts 
of Yirgil ; he bewails his brother with the 
elegance of Ovid and the tenderness of 
Tibullus ; and he has touched the lyre of 
Sappho with a hand only inferior to that Catullus. 

of the great Venusian. In every branch 

of poetical literature in which the Augustan age stood conspicuous 
Catullus excelled ; and, had he been assumed as a model by all the 
poets of that brilliant period, a greater resemblance to his excellences 
could scarcely have been expected than that which is actually found 
in the Augustan writers. 

The poems of Catullus have been divided into lyric, elegiac, and 
epigrammatic ; an arrangement convenient from its generality, but to 
which all his poems cannot be with strictness reduced. He appears 
to have been the earliest lyric poet of Latium, although Horace 
claims that honour for himself. Horace certainly was not ignorant 
of the writings of Catullus, as he has mentioned, and, perhaps, has 
imitated him ; 2 and he must therefore have known that the lyric 

1 Carm. 52. 
2 It is scarcely possible that all the following resemblances can be referable to 
chance : — 

Dianam pueri integri 

Puellaeque canamus. — Catull. x. 22. 

Dianam tenerae dicite virgines ; 

Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium. — Hor. lib. i. Od. 21. 

Quo tunc et tellus, atque horrida contremuerunt 
iEquora, concussitque micantia sidera mundus. 

Catull. Pel. etThet. 

Quo bruta tellus, quo vaga flumina, 

Quo Styx, et invisi horrida Tsenari 

Sedes, Atlanteusque finis 

Concutitur. — Hor. lib. i. Od. 34. 

Soles occidere et redire possunt ; 



56 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Catullus. measures of Greece had been previously introduced. The meaning 
of Horace, probably, is that he himself introduced some new measures 
from the Greeks. The Sapphic measure of Catullus is, in one instance, 
less strict than that of Horace ; beginning, as sometimes in the 
Greek, with a ditrochee instead of a second epitrite : if the verse, 

Otium Catulle, tibi molestum est, 

be his, which most probably it is not. Certain it is that it 
has no natural connexion with the poem of which it is usually 
considered part. The ode is a most spirited and beautiful 
translation of part of an exquisite poem of Sappho, preserved 
to us by Longinus. In all probability, the remainder of the 
poem, either not being translated, or the translation having been 
lost, has been thus awkwardly supplied by another hand ; or perhaps 
it is only a monkish gloss, which has, in frequent transcription, 
crept into the text. The Glycoiiian verse was used, probably for 
the first time in Latin, by Catullus, in his Carmen Saculare, and in 
his UjAtkalamium of Manlius and Julia. 

In his Elegiac Poems, Catullus is very different from Tibullus and 
Propertius, and is still more removed from Ovid. The niceties of 
the Latin pentameter, particularly its termination with a dissyllable, 
had been observed by previous writers. Catullus has disregarded 
their example, and has copied strictly from the Greeks. Of this 
species of composition Horace observes, 

Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum, 
Post, etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos : 1 

and the Elegies of Catullus are of both descriptions. The most 
considerable part, however, of his writings is the Epigrammatic 
division ; not in talent, but in number. There is one, and it is the 
highest, beauty of the Greek Epigram, which the Latin writers have 
never completely attained, and which is best described by a word 
taken from the language in which alone this species of poetry has 
been successfully cultivated, — a(/>eA<ria, a word which our simplicity 
but inadequately renders. The distinction which has been lumi- 
nously drawn between Catullus and Martial by Yavasour is applicable 

Nobis, quiim semel occidit brevis lux, 

Nox est perpetua una dormienda. — Catull. v. 

Damna tarn en celeres reparant ccelestia Lunse; 

Nos, ubi decidimus 
Quo pius JEneas, quo Tullus dives, et Ancus, 

Pulvis et umbra sumus. — Hot. lib. iv. Od. 6. 

Compare also Catull. xi. with Hor. lib. ii. Od. 6. x De Art. Poet. 75. 



CATULLUS. THE EPIGRAM. 57 

to the Greek and Roman Epigrammatists severally. 1 " Catullum Comparison 
quidem, puro ac simplici candor e, et nativd quddam minimeque adscitd ^ith Martial. 
excellere venustate forma, quce accedat quam proxime ad Gracos : 
Martialem acumine, qnod proprium Latinorum, et peculiar x e tunc fieri 
ccepit, valere ; adeoque Catullum toto corpore Epigrammatis esse 
conspicuum, Martialem clausula prcecipue atque ultimo fine, in quo 
•eliuquat cum delectatione aculeum spectari." We cannot agree, how- 
ever, with this author's "quam proxime" It is true that Catullus 
is much less pointed in his epigrams than Martial ; yet their style is 
very different from that of the best Greek epigrams. The address 
to the Peninsula of Sirmio is extremely beautiful and simple ; yet 
its beauty and simplicity are not those of the Greek Epigram. 
A few Greek Epigrams attempt point ; and to these the lighter 
poetry of Catullus has some resemblance. 

The Epigram was cultivated at an early period of the poetical Epigram, 
history of Latium : Ennius, Plautus, Ncevius, Pacuvius, all com- 
posed epigrams on themselves, which approximate much nearer to 
the Greek than any by Catullus. Those of Ennius and Plautus, 
which we have cited above, are formed, in metre as well as style, 
on the legitimate Greek model; but even in these there is an 
antithesis between <l funera " and " vivus" " numeri " and (t in- 
numeri" not strictly in the spirit of the epigrammatic d<pe\eia. 
The Epitaph of Pacuvius has more of this latter quality, although 
his iambics are not conformed to the strict canons of the Greeks : — 

Adolescens, si properas, hoc te saxum rogat 

Uti se adspicias : deinde, quod scriptum est legas. 

Hie sunt Poetae Pacuviei Mareei sita 

Ossa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Yale. 

Young man, although thou be in haste, this stone 

Invites thy gaze to what is writ thereon. 

Beneath, the hard Pacuvius' relics dwell. 

This I would have thee know. Enough. Farewell. 

The nearest approaches to the Greek were probably made by Varro, 
in the epigrams which he placed under the representations of his 
seven hundred worthies in the Hebdomades ; 2 and by Pomponius 

1 Yav. de Lud. Diet. 
2 It is impossible to notice this extraordinary work of an extraordinary man, 
without adverting to the words of Pliny. ". . . . M. Yarro, benignissimo mvento, 
insertis voluminum suorum fcecunditati non nominibus tantum dcc illustrium, 
sed et aliquo modo imaginibus, non passus intercidere figuras, aut vetustateni 
cevl contra homines valere, inventor muneris etiam diis invidiosi, quando 
immortalitatem non solum dedit, verum etiam in omnes terras misit, xd pra- 
sentes esse ubique et claudi possent." What was the nature of this invention has 
been much disputed ; but the passage is one of the most singular testimonies of 
antiquity to one of its most remarkable ornaments. 



58 ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Caiuiius. Atticus, in a similar work, intituled Imagines, containing the 
portraits of eminent Komans. 

When the number of Latin epigrammatists is considered whose 
names have been preserved to us, it is astonishing that more 
abundant materials for a Latin Anthology should not exist. 1 The 
names of epigrammatists whose extant works have been collected 
may be found in Pabricius, (Biblioth. Lat. lib. iv. c. 1. 6.) The 
list embraces many of the most illustrious characters of their 
respective ages. The following are the most celebrated, as epi- 
grammatists chiefly : Q,. Catulus, Porcius Licinius, Val. iEdituus, 
Q-. Cornificius, C. Helvius Cinna, M. Furius Bibaculus, C. Ticida, 
Laurea Tullius, and C. Licinius Calvus. The last poet and 
Catullus were decidedly the favourites of Rome, as sufficiently 
appears through Horace's contemptuous sneer — 

Simius iste, 
Nil praeter Calvura et doctus cantare Catullum : 2 

and from a variety of passages in which their names are associated. 3 
Calvus wrote elegiac amatory verses ; 4 and his epigrams, which did 
not spare the heads of either faction of his day, were of the most 
animated and caustic character, in both which respects he resembled 
Catullus, who was indeed his friend and admirer, if the 48th 
poem was, as is commonly supposed, addressed to him. A curious 
passage of Aulus Gellius affords some explanation of the paucity of 
early epigrams now extant. In the ninth chapter of the 19th 
book of his Nodes Attlcce, he introduces some Greeks speaking on 

1 That of Burmann (Amst. 1759 and 1773) contains 1346 poems; but of these 
some are not properly epigrams ; some are fragments of longer poems ; some are 
not genuine ; some not classical. The arrangement is that of the subjects. 
Meyer's Anthology (Leipz. 1835) contains 1704 poems ; but of these 535 only 
are of unquestionable antiquity, and of this number are 31 not in Burmann's 
collection. The arrangement is chronological. 

2 I. Sat. x. 18. 

3 Ista meis fiet notissima forma libellis ; 

Calve, tug, venia ; pace, Catulle, tua. — Propert. ii. 25, 3. 

Obvius huic venias, hedera juvenilia cinctus 

Tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo. — Ovid, Amor. iii. 9, 61. 

Facit versus, quales Catullus meus, aut Calvus. — Plin. i. Epist. 1 6. 

The same author (iv. Epist. 27) quotes the following passage from Sentius 
Augurinus : 

Canto carmina versibus minutis, 
His, olim quibus et meus Catullus 
Et Calvus. 

Lastly, Ovid, having just mentioned Catullus (ii. Trist. 431), adds, 

Par fuit exigui similisque licentia Calvi. 

4 Io and Epithalamium were titles of two of his poems. 



THE EPIGRAM. 59 

the subject of Greek and Latin epigrams, and inquiring', " ecquis Catullus. 
nostrorum [Latinoruni] Poetarum tarn jluentes carminum delicias 
fecisset ?" to which question they make their own reply : " nisi 
Catullus, forte, pauca, et Calvv.s itidem, pauca. Nam Ncevius 
implicata, et Hortensius invenusta, et Cinna illepida, et Memmius 
dura, ac deinceps omnes rudia fecerunt atque absona" This is, 
doubtless, meant to be spoken in the spirit of Greek criticism; 
probably, however, it affords the most satisfactory explanation of 
the disappearance of these numerous authors. Antonius Julianus, 
to whom these insulting observations were addressed, was not so 
easily to be put down, and begged permission to sing to them some 
epigrams of iEdituus, Porcius Licinius, and Quintus Catulus. The 
character which Gellius gives of these poems will not be readily 
confirmed by scholars : " mundius, venustius, limatius, pressius, 
Gr cecum Latinumve nihil quicquam reperiri ptito." We shall subjoin 
the epigrams, in order that our readers may have an opportunity 
of estimating what were, confessedly, the best efforts of the most 
celebrated Eoman epigrammatists. The first is from iEdituus : — ■ 

Dicere quum conor curam tibi, Pamphila, cordis, 

Quid mi abs te quseram ? verba labris abeunt. 
Per pectus miserum manat subito rnibi sudor : 

Si tacitus, subidus, duplo ided pereo. 

The following verses of the same author are called by Gellius 
" non liercle minus dulces quam priores : " — 

Quid faculam prsefers, Pbileros, qua nil opu' nobis ? 

Ibimus. Hie lucet pectore flamma satis. 
Istam non potis est vis sseva exstinguere venti, 

Aut imber coelo candidu' prsecipitans. 
At, contra, bunc ignein Veneris, si non Venus ipsa, 

Nulla est quae possit vis alia opprimere. 

LICINIUS. 

Custodes ovium teneraeque propaginis agnum, 

Quseritis ignem? ite hue ; quaeritis ? ignis homo est. 

Si digito attigero, incendam sylvarn simul omnem. 
Omne pecus flamma est ; omnia quae video. 

CATULUS. 

Anfugit mi animus, credo, ut solet ; ad Theotimum 

Devenit. Sic est, perfugium illud habet. 
Quid si non interdixem, ne illuc fugitivum 

Mitteret ad se intro, sed magis ejiceret ? 
Ibimu' quaesitum. Verum ne ipsi teneamur, 

Formido. Quid agam ? da, Venu', consilium. 

Between such productions as these and the poems of Catullus, it is 
unnecessary to indicate the difference. They do not merit trans- 
lation; and the last epigram was unfortunately alleged in the 
controversy, as it is Greek in its origin and matter, and Eoman 



60 



ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Catullus. 



Pervigilium 
Veneris. 



Ciris. 



only in its clumsiness. A better and more Boman epigram of the 
same author is preserved by Cicero : ' — 

Constiteram exorientem Auroram forte salutans, 

Quum subitd a laeva Roscius exoritur. 
Pace mihi liceat, ccelestes, dicere vestrS,, 

Mortalis visus pulcrior esse dec-. 

It chanced I stood to greet the uprising Morn, 
When on my left I saw bright Roscius shine. 

Deem not, celestials, that I speak in scorn, 
But mortal charms show fairer than divine. 

Those works of Catullus not strictly reducible to the heads under 
which the grammarians have classed his productions, are the 
JEpithalamium of Peleus and Thetis, another epithaiamium, composed 
on an uncertain occasion, and the poem of Atys. The two former 
are lyrical in spirit, though written in hexameters ; but the latter 
not only differs from every other poem of Catullus, but has no 
extant parallel in Latin poetry. It is written in the Galliambic 
measure, and is the only entire Latin poem extant in that metre. 
It is highly animated and impassioned ; and though it bears every 
external evidence of translation from the Greek, it is yet sufficiently 
removed from resemblance to anything extant in that language to 
convey, perhaps, more ideas of originality to a modern reader, than 
any other single piece of Latin poetry, if we except particular 
productions of Horace. 

The Pervigilium Veneris has been ascribed to Catullus, while 
some critics assign to it so late a date as the time of Hadrian, and 
even later. 2 It has been greatly corrupted, but is still a very 
beautiful poem, and is well worthy the pen of Catullus. The Ciris, 
attributed by some to the same author, is also much corrupted ; 
but it combines, with much poetical merit, a considerable resem- 
blance to the style of the Peleus and Thetis. The poem is usually 
referred to Virgil ; but there are some circumstances which make 
it probable that Catullus was its author. The most substantial 
difficulty is the dedication to Messala, who was not born until 
some years after the epoch usually assigned to the death of 
Catullus. But it is not certain that the patron of Tibullus was 
meant; neither is it certain that Catullus did not live during 
the time of this same Messala. Bayle, who, in his Dictionary, 
(art. Catulle) contends against the late epoch assigned by 
Scaliger to the death of Catullus, admits that the words of 
Martial imply a positive assertion that he was the contemporary 
of Virgil, 3 and argues only on the supposition that Martial was 

1 De Nat. Deor. i. 28. 
2 For the conflicting opinions on the authorship of this poem, see Baehr, Gesch. 
d. R. L. § 149, and his notes and references. 

3 Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus 
Magno mittere " Passerem " Maroni. — Mart. lib. iv. Ep. 14. 



CATULLUS, J. CAESAR, CINNA, VARRO, ETC. 61 

mistaken. This difficulty, therefore, is not insuperable. Many Catullus. 
verses in the Ciris are found in Yirgil's acknowledged works ; but 
we know that Virgil was by no means scrupulous in his use of the 
productions of his predecessors. But the principal argument in 
favour of Catullus is that Pliny expressly mentions an imitation of 
the ^apfiaKevrpia of Theocritus by this poet, which is no where to 
be found in any of his acknowledged works. 1 The poem has been 
also ascribed to Gallus and to Yalerius Cato. 

Although Catullus is the greatest name of what we may call the 
transition period, he is by no means solitary. Julius Csesar wrote 
a poem called Iter, on his Spanish expedition against the sons of 
Pompey, and another " De Siderum Motu ;" a tragedy, intituled 
(Edipas, and a panegyric on Hercules. C. Helvius Cinna was the 
author of Smyrna, a poem much admired by duinctilian and 
Catullus ; a valediction to Asinius Pollio, on his departure for the 
Parthian war, called Protreptieon 2 Pollionis ; and some minor 
poems. To him Virgil is supposed to allude in the lines — 

Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, neque dicere CmiiS, 
Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores. 3 

Varro of Atax, whom we have already mentioned as an unsuccessful 
satirist, appears to have been more fortunate as a free translator of 
the Argonautics of Apollonius, and the Aratea and CJwrographia of 
Eratosthenes. He also wrote a poem, Be Bello Sequanico, and some 
elegies. Of Hostius, whom we have mentioned as a follower of Ennius, 
we only possess a few fragments ; but his name is of interest, as he 
is one of the writers from whom Virgil did not disdain to borrow. 
" The most elegant poet since the deaths of Lucretius and Catullus," 
is pronounced by Nepos 4 to have been L. Julius Calidus. But, 
except from occasional testimonies, we have no means of forming 
any opinion of the merits of these and contemporary poets. These 
luminaries were extinguished in the absorbing blaze of the Augustan 
day. So far, however, as we may probably conjecture, the event 
has not left much to regret. The Alexandrine writers appear to 
have been the predominant models of the time. A cold correctness, 
not further removed from the rough vigour of Ennius, than from 
the animated adaptations of Virgil, would therefore be the prevalent 
characteristic of the Julian poets. Of the state of the drama at 
this period, we shall speak more conveniently when treating the 
Augustan. 

Such was the state of poetry at Eome when Horace appeared on 
its poetical horizon. 

1 Nat. Hist, xxviii. 2. - Or, Propempticon. 

3 Eel. ix . 45. ■» Vit. Att. 12. 



62 



MSS., EDITIONS, &c, OE THE ANTE-AUGUSTAN POETS. 

— ♦ — 
LIVIUS ANDRONICUS. 

Livii Andronici Fragmenta, collecta et illustfata ab H. Diintzer. Berlin, 

1835. 
Sagittarius de Vita et Scriptt. Livii Andronici et aliorum. Altenb., 1672. 

N^VIUS. 

Stephanus. Paris, 1564. Almeloveen. Arastel. 1686. 

Belli Punici Fragmenta. Hermann (Elem. Doctr. Metr.) 

Bothe. Poetarum Latii Scenicorum Fragmenta. 

Klussmann. The entire remains, with life and essay. Jena, 1843. 

ENNIUS. 

Q. Ennii Poetae vetustissimi, quae supersunt, Fragmenta. Collegit, dispo- 
suit, illustravit Hieronymus Columna. Hesselius' improved edition. 
Amstel. 1707. 

Annalium Fragmenta collata, comparata, illustrata, a P. Merula. Lugd. 
Bat. 1595. 

PLAUTUS. 

MS. Milan palimpsest, 5th cent. 

Editio Princeps. Merula. Venetiis, 1472. 

Bothe. Lipsise. 1834. 

Weise, Quedlinburg. 1837-8. 

Subsidia. — Lessing, von dem Leben und der Werken des Plautus. Berlin, 

1838. Geppert, ueber den Codex Ambrosianus, und seinen Einfluss 

auf die Plautinische Kritik. Leipzig. 1847. 

Ritschl. Parergon Plautinorum Terentianorumque. Lips. 1845. 

Bekker. De Comicis Romanorum Fabulis. Lips. 1837. 
Translations. Thornton and Warner, 1767 — 1774. 

OECILIUS. 
C. Csecilii Statii deperditarum Fabularum Fragmenta, edidit L. Spengel. 
Monachii, 1829. 

TERENCE. 

MSS. Vatican, Bembinus, 5th century. Cambridge. 

Vatican, 9th century. 
Edit. Princeps. Mediol. 1470. 

Bentleii. Cantab. 1726. Edidit Vollbehr. Kilias. 1846. 

Stallbaum. Lips. 1830. 

Zeune. 1774. 
Subsidia. Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Hurd's Dialogues on 

Poetical Imitation, &c. Diderot, Essai sur le Poesie Dramatique, 

Spectator, 502. 
Translation. Colman. 



MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OP THE ANTE-AUGUSTAN POETS. 63 

LUCILIUS. 
Corpet. Paris. 1845. 
Gerlach. Zurich. 1846. 
These are subsidia, as well as editions. 

LUCRETIUS. 

Edit. Princ. Ferandus. Brixige. 1473. Three copies only existing. 

Gifanius. Antverp. 1566. 

Lambinus. 1570. 

Pareus. Francof. 1631. 

Havercamp. Lugd. Bat. 1725. 

Wakefield. Glasg. 1813. 

Creech. Oxon. 1818. 

Forbiger. Lips. 1828. 
Translations. Creech, Oxon. 1682. 
Goodm., Lond. 1805. 
Busby, Lond. 1813. 

CATULLUS. 

Ed. Princ. 1472. No mention of place, printer, or editor. 

Volpi. Patav. 1710. 

Doring. Altonse. 1834. 

Lachmann. Berol. 1829. 
Subsidia. Mureti. Achillis Statii, Passeratii, Vossii, Commentarii. 
Translations. Nott, Lond. 1795. 
Lamb, Lond. 1821. 



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Frora a painting at Herculaneum. 



THE AUGUSTAN AGE. 

U. C. 710— U. C. 767. (A.D. 14.) 



POETS. 



POLLIO. 


Valgius. 


Virgil. 


Propertius. 


Horace. 


Albinovanus 


Gallus. 


PONTICUS. 


Tibullus. 


Ovid. 


Varius. 


Gratius. 



PART II. 



z 



THE AUGUSTAN AGE ; OF LATIN" POETRY. 

The most brilliant epoch of Eomari poetry coincided, to a great 
extent, with the life of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, whose biography, 
in a great measure, records its history, and will afford the most 
convenient way of treating it. 

This great and various genius 
was born at Venusia or Yenu- 
sium, 1 a town on the frontiers 
of Lucania and Apulia, in 
the Consulship of L. Aurelius 
Cotta and L. Manlius Tor- 
quatus; 2 consequently in the 
689th year of Kome, and sixty- 
five years before the vulgar 
sera. 3 His father was a freed- 
man and a tax-gatherer, 4 who 
invested his gains in a small 
farm, 5 where the poet passed 
his earliest years, and imbibed 
that keen relish for rural plea- 
sures, that ardent love of nature, 
and that warm admiration of 
the simple and hardy rustic 
life, which ever, where animate 
his writings. Of his early childhood at this place he gives us and 
an anecdote which is partly, no doubt, a poetical fiction, but childhood. 
possibly may have had some sort of foundation. He had 

1 2 Sat. i. 35. 2 3 0d> xxi- l# Cf Epo(L xiij# 8 et i Ep xx . 27. 

3 See Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, A. c. 65. 

4 1. Sat. vi. 86. Suet, in Vita. Or, a collector of payments at auctions, if the 
reading in Suetonius be exauctionum, not exactimium. This writer also mentions 
a prevalent opinion that Horace's father was a drysalter. But the testimony of 
Horace himself is quite express for his having been a collector in some way ; and 
the passage itself appears interpolated. 

5 Some contend that he became " coactor" after his removal to Rome. See 
Obbarius, Einleit. zu Horaz. Anm. 6. 

[R. L.] F 




Horace. 



66 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



His 
education. 



Battle of 
Philippi. 






Horace. strayed, lie tells us, in a playful ramble to Mount Vultur, where, 
overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. Here the wood- 
pigeons protected him from the gaze of wild beasts under a heap 
of laurel and myrtle, which they accumulated over him. 1 When he 
was, probably, about twelve years of age, his father removed him to 
Eome, and there gave him a liberal education under Orbilius Pupillus 
of Beneventum. 2 By him he was instructed in Greek literature, 
and had perused the Iliad, as he himself informs us, 3 before he 
went to Athens, which had long been a place of fashionable 
literary resort for the Eoman youth, to complete his education. 
During his abode there the assassination of Caesar, and the 
consequent troubles, took place ; and Brutus, on his march to 
Macedonia, took with him, among many other young Romans of 
similar pursuits, Horace, who was then in his twenty-third year, 
and gave him the rank of Military Tribune : 4 in this office he 
sustained some hard service, 5 and possibly crossed into Asia. He 
freely confesses his cowardice at the battle of Philippi, where he 
left his shield, 6 a circumstance which the ancients considered 
particularly ignominious. It is possible, however, that Horace 
has himself overcharged the picture, wishing, by this stroke 
of apparent candour and simplicity, to persuade Augustus that 
his connexion with the adverse party was less the result of 
political conviction than of the natural activity and restlessness of 
a youthful mind, ardent for adventure, and only brave while 
thoughtless of danger. That Augustus could totally forget the 
circumstances in which Horace had placed himself was not to be 
expected ; it might, therefore, have been politic in the poet to set 
them in a less unpleasant light ; and with the mention of the event 
he has not forgotten to notice the scattering of the brave, and the 
prostration of the threatening, before the irresistible arm of Caesar. 
About this time, a youth of like age and similar pursuits with 
Horace was about to be united with him in the bonds of a life- 
long friendship, through the sympathies of a common fate, and 
common tastes and studies. Publius Virgilius 7 Maro was born 

Virgil. at Andes, near Mantua, on the 15th October, u. c. 684. His 

father, Virgilius Maro, was an opulent farmer : who, being, like 
the father of Horace, an intelligent person, gave his son a 
liberal Greek and Latin education at Cremona and Milan, which 
was completed under the poet Parthenius, and the Epicurean 
Syron. Prom his father, Virgil inherited the family estate at 
Mantua. But before the Triumvirate undertook their expedition 
against Brutus and Cassius, they had agreed at Mutina, in order 



1 3 Od. iv. 9. 2 Ep. ad Aug. 69. 3 2 Ep. ii. 41. 

4 1 Sat. vi. 48. 5 2 Od. vii. 1. e 2 Od. vii. 3. 

7 Vergilius in the oldest Medicean MSS., and in the Vatican MS. 



HOEACE. THE CONFISCATION. G7 

to retain their soldiers in allegiance, to give them, in the event of Horace, 
success, eighteen principal towns of Italy, which had adhered to 
the opposite faction ; and among these were Yenusium and 
Cremona. Thus, in the distribution which followed the consum- Confiscation 
mation of the war, the paternal estate of Horace at the former ^^f ony of 
place was confiscated, * and the neighbourhood of Mantua to the Horace, 
devoted Cremona ensured it a fate scarcely less deplorable from the Propertius, 
lawless soldiery. Virgil was consequently placed in the same andTibuiius. 
circumstances with Horace. Tibullus and Propertius shared a 
similar fortune; at least, Propertius certainly bore part in this 
extensive calamity. Tibullus deplores a sudden deprivation of his 
property, 2 w T hich is supposed to refer to this circumstance. That 
he had competent resources after this loss, appears from Horace's 
address to him, " Di tibi divitias dederunt ;" although some read 
" dederant ;" 3 but it is not to be supposed that Horace would 
have taunted his friend with the possession of riches which he had 
lost. It was this competency which enabled Tibullus to live 
without dependence on court patronage ; for in no part of his works 
has he celebrated Augustus or Maecenas, while he is profuse in his 
commendations of his patron Messala, who had served in the 
army of Cassius. By whose intercession Virgil regained his patri- 
mony, authors are not agreed. Asinius Pollio, and Maecenas, the 
celebrated patron of literature, have the best authorities in their 
favour. Pollio, having charge of that district, probably recom- 
mended his case to Maecenas ; who was little likely to have been 
otherwise acquainted with the son of obscure rustics, as all 
Virgil's biographers represent his parents to have been. On this 
event his 1st Eclogue was, most certainly, composed. The character 
of Tityrus in this poem may not have been intended for Yirgil 
himself, although some of the ancients so understood it, and 
the poet elsewhere appropriates the name: 4 it is, however, a 
lively picture of the surprise and gratitude of an outcast, who 
finds himself suddenly restored to his domestic comforts, and 
contrasts strikingly with the desperate melancholy of the house- 
less wanderer Meliboeus, taking his last survey of the desolated 
hearth, with which all his dearest affections were associated. 
The removal of Pollio was attended with disastrous conse- 
quences to Yirgil. His estate was again seized by the rapa- 
cious military, and himself compelled to seek his safety by flight 
to Home. The story of his second expulsion is treated in the 
IXth Eclogue. He succeeded in again recovering his patrimony, 
apparently through the interest of one Yarus, of whom he speaks in 

1 2 Ep. ii. 51. M Eleg L 19—23. Cf. iv. 1. 183—190. 

3 1 Ep. iv. 7. The short penultima of the 3rd pi. perf. ind. act., though rare, is 
not unexampled. See Virg. Eel. iv. 60. yEn. iii. 681. Prop. 3 Eleg. xxiv. ult. 

4 Eel. vi. 4. 



6$ 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 



Horace 

introduced 

to 



the highest strain of commendation in the Vlth and IXth Eclogues ; 
who this Varus was, cannot now be determined. 1 Perhaps he was 
Quinctilius Varus, whose death Horace deplores in the XXIVth 
Ode of the 1st Book, and of whom he there speaks as the especial 
friend of Virgil. 

Horace made no solicitations to Augustus. Thrown on his 
own resources, his habits and pursuits allowed him no other 
subsistence than literature. Poverty, whose chilling influence on 
the fire of Poetry the great Satirist has so pathetically lamented, 2 
was his bold and stimulating Muse. 3 What were the productions 
of her inspiration, or whether any are now extant, is not known ; 
the situation of public affairs, however, renders it possible that 
the XlVth Ode of the 1st Book, in which he addresses the 
Eoman State under the allegory of a weather-beaten vessel, was 
written under these circumstances. This Ode, however, is by 
Canon Tate referred to Horace's 39th year, when the project of 
restoring the republic followed the triumph of Augustus over 
Antony. Whatever were the merits of his early compositions, 
Horace was soon known to Virgil, the similarity of whose situation 
almost necessarily interested him in the fate of his brother bard ; 
and by him was recommended to Maecenas. He had, however, 
the advantage of a still more powerful friend : Varius, " the lofty 
bird of Homeric song," as he termed him in his poetical raptures, 4 
and, in his prosaic moments, "the unrivalled Epic," 5 and whose 
tragic excellence has been already noticed, became interested in 
his favour, and also mentioned him to Maecenas. Horace has 
left us a pleasing and natural account of 
his introduction to the literary courtier. 6 
In few and broken words he candidly ex-, 
plained his simple history ; he received a 
brief answer, and, in nine months after 
his introduction, that lordly monarch of 
wits called him to the number of his 
subjects. His earliest composition after 
this event is, probably, that which stands 
first in his works; at least, he informs 
us that his first poem was composed in 
honour of Maecenas; 7 and this Ode has 
the appearance of being written under 
such circumstances. It describes the 
various pursuits of mankind briefly, but 
comprehensively ; it touches on the addic- 
tion of each individual to his own ; and it concludes with an 




Maecenas. 



1 C©nf. Heyne, Excurs. ii. ad Bucolica. 
2 Juv. Sat. vii. " 8 2 Ep. ii. 51. 4 1 Od. vi. 2. 

5 1 Sat. x. 44. 6 1 Sat. vi. 54. seqq. ~* 1 Ep. i. I. 



HORACE. JOURNEY TO BRTJNDUSITJM. 



69 



animated eulogy on Poetry, describing the author's exclusive Horace, 
devotion to its cultivation, and expressing a hope that Maecenas 
would class him among the lyric bards. His patron assented; and 
the consequent cessation of jealous malevolence is gratefully and 
exultingly celebrated by Horace, in the Illrd Ode of his IYth Book. 

Though Maecenas was slow in the formation of our poet's Journey to 
acquaintance, he showed himself forward in its cultivation after- Bruadusium 
wards ; and very shortly after Horace had been thus noticed, he 
accompanied the Minister on his journey to Brundusium, whither 
he was sent by Augustus to treat with Antony, who was then 
menacing Italy with a renewal of the civil wars. This event must 
have taken place at so early a period of Horace's acquaintance 
with Maecenas, that some writers have supposed that the poet 
celebrated in his Journey to Brundusium a subsequent expedition 




Brundusram. 



of a similar nature, which Maecenas undertook two years after, 
when Antony landed at Tarentum ; but the name of Coccejus Nerva, 
which occurs in the Satire, restricts the subject to the earlier event, 
as that person attended only on the former expedition. On this 
occasion Horace had an opportunity of enjoying the society of 
his friends Virgil, Yarius, and Plotius. The enthusiasm of his 
admiration for these illustrious men, and the warmth of his 
attachment, so exquisitely expressed in his Satire on the occasion, 
are among the many proofs that rivalry in ingenuous studies is 
far from being necessarily connected with disingenuous passions ; 



70 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 



Intercourse 

with 

Maecenas. 



and that the friendships which result from literary, and especially 
poetical, sympathy, are ordinarily the most exalted and permanent 
of any. But although Maecenas took every opportunity of 
conversing with Horace, his caution and reserve were still main- 
tained : for that at the end of seven years they had not attained 
a strictly confidential familiarity, is the least that can be inferred 
from what Horace himself then says of the state of their acquaint- 
ance; 1 although it must be admitted that the description is 
designedly exaggerated. He appears at this time to have been, 
what Suetonius tells us he was, a Quaestor's secretary : since he 
mentions the desire of the secretaries to see him on a matter 
affecting their common interest : — 

De re commv/ni scribse magna, atque nova te 
Orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti. 2 

The frankness and warmth of the poet, however, at length 
prevailed over the caution and formality of the courtier, who 
afterwards returned the fidelity of Horace with conduct less 
resembling the patron than the friend. He presented him with 
an estate in the Sabine territory, which has been commonly thought 
to be the same with the Tiburtian villa, 3 to which the poet 
frequently alludes. The whole history of Maecenas indeed exhibits 
aversion to hasty decision, and steadiness of action where he had 
once decided. 




Augustus. 

to^AuiStus -By Maecenas Horace was recommended to Augustus, with whom, 

1 2 Sat. vi. 40. 2 2 Sat. vi. 37. 

3 The reasons for distinguishing these places will he found at length in Tate's 
Horatius Restitutus, Prel. Diss. Part II. They are plausible, but scarcely 
demonstrative. See on Horace's Villa a list of authorities in Obbarius (Einleitung 
zu Horaz, Anm. 27), who inclines to think the Tiburtian villa a residence of 
Maecenas (Anm. 28). 



HORACE. HIS CHARACTER. 71 

according to Suetonius, or the writer of the life ascribed to that Horace, 
historian, he lived on terms of the closest familiarity. How far His 
he was qualified for the intimacy of princes, he has not left us character, 
in doubt. That wonderful versatility, which, in the genius of 
Horace, produced such diversified poetical excellence, seems to have 
extended to his inclinations. He appears to have enjoyed, with 
equal intensity, the tranquillity of literary rural seclusion, and the 
social refinements of the court and city. He could pass, even with 
delight, from the luxurious table of Maecenas, and the intellectual 
conversation of Pollio, Varius, and Virgil, to his rustic beans and 
bacon, and the old wives' tales of his country neighbour Cervius. * 
So sensible indeed was he of inconsistency in this respect, that he 
has put a severe censure of himself, on this very account, into the 
mouth of one of his own slaves. 2 And yet he has, perhaps, accused 
himself rashly. There is no inconsistency in admiring Raphael and 
Teniers ; and the true poetic mind finds elements of beauty, and 
matter of pleasing contemplation, in every phase of human and 
inanimate nature. The country, in truth, was the home of Horace's 
heart : the city having no further attractions for him than such as 
friendship and literature presented ; and when he could enjoy these 
by his rural hearth, the proud mistress of the world had parted 
with all her charms. On his conduct at the court of Augustus, 
his epistles to Scseva and Lollius form an admirable commentary. 
Even in the former of these he admits that a life of obscurity is no 
misfortune, although he prefers an honourable intercourse with 
the great. From the precepts which he affords for the conduct 
of every part of life, and from his known familiarity with Augustus, 
we may conclude, that, in all his transactions with that prince, he 
was neither importunate nor servile ; that, while loaded with 
honours, he made no degrading compromise — no unseasonable 
solicitation : but either complied with freedom, or dissented with 
modesty and respect. 

An analysis of the several productions of Horace is foreign to His writings. 
the nature of this work ; we shall notice therefore such only as 
bear on his biography and the literary history of the time. But, 
before this is done, it will be convenient to premise a few words 
on the departments of poetry which he especially cultivated. We 
have already offered a conjecture in explanation of his repeated 
claim to the importation of lyric poetry from Greece. To this we 
may add the undisguised contempt which he entertained for 
Catullus, and the consciousness of his own great superiority. 
Indeed, Quinctilian, with an enthusiasm which his subject amply odes, 
justifies, designates him "lyricorum fere solus legi digitus." But 
Horace, as we observed in the first part of this memoir, had much 

1 1 Sat. vi. 89, seqq. - Ibid. ii. 7. 



72 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 






His 

imitations. 



more substantial claims to originality than those which he so osten- 
tatiously put forth ; his metres, the introduction of which he so 
proudly vaunts, are Greek, and, as far as may be conjectured from 
extant Greek fragments, considerably restricted; but his subjects 
breathe all the freshness of original conception. Nor can it be 
objected that the loss of their models allows us no criterion of their 
excellence ; since many are purely Eoman in sentiment and allusion, 
while others are totally unlike what ancient authors lead us to 
conclude respecting the strains of the Lesbian lyre. The elegant 
negligence of Anacreon, the daring and magnificent sublimity of 
Pindar, and the plaintive melancholy of Simonides, alternate in the 
odes of Horace ; but it is the spirit alone of these writers that we 
recognise; and it is probable that his imitations of Alcseus and 
Sappho were of the same nature. At most, they seem to have 
been that kind of happy adaptation, which is not to be found in the 
Eclogues of Yirgil, and which gives the beauties of an original to an 
acknowledged imitation. As an illustration of what we mean, we 
will here adduce a fragment of Alcseus, manifestly corrupt, but 
which Horace certainly had before his mind when he wrote the 
IXth Ode of his 1st Book : 



Yet fxhv 6 28ei/s, e'/c 8' opavoo fizyas 
Xeifxwu, ireirdyaaiv 0' vdaTwu (>oai. 



Ka/3y6aAAe top x 6 '/^"'? ^ l^ v Tt0els 
Tlvp, 4v 5e Kipvais olvov acpeib'tws 
MtXixp6v aiirap a^(p\ K6paa 
MaAdaKov afATriTiQei yvatyaKhov 

Yet every Eoman must have felt the originality and domestic senti- 
ment of Horace's picture, as strongly as we participate in the 
social cheerfulness of Cowper's snug and curtained fireside. The 
XXXVIIth Ode of the same Book has been partially imitated from 
an Ode of Alcseus, beginning : 

Nw XPV fiedvo-Ketv, Kai riva Trpbs fiiav l 
Yliveiv, iireib'r) Kardave MvpaiAos' 

But the whole spirit of the composition is essentially Eoman, and 
the magnificent description of Cleopatra stamps it original. The 
XVIIIth Ode of the same 1st Book is, probably, one of the closest 



1 If the reading be, as some give it, 

X^ova irpbs (itav 

Uaieiv, 

the imitation is yet closer. But the term libero marks the occasion, and the 
Roman spirit of indignant liberty spurning the riven chain. 



HORACE. — EPODES. 73 

imitations of Alcseus in the whole volume : the first line of it is a Horace. 
strict translation from a passage of Alcaeus preserved in Athenseus : 

Mrjdev 6.W0 cpvrevarjs irp6Tepov devdpeov ajxiriXbi' 

But the "solum Tiburis" and the "mcenia Catili" domesticate this 
poem with peculiar felicity. 

There is another species of poetry of which Horace claims the iambics, 
introduction ; the Iambic. The word " iambi" separately taken, E P° des - 
conveyed a very different idea to the ancients from that of the mere 
iambic measure ; an idea which the Epodes of Horace express more 
clearly than any definition. The Iambographia formed a distinct 
department of poetry; approaching indeed to the lyric, and yet 
distinguished from it by Horace himself. 1 The object of Horace in 
writing his iambics, as declared by himself, was to express the 
spirit of Archilochus without his malignity : 2 

Parios ego primus lam bos 
Ostendi Latio : numeros animosque sequutus 
Archilochi ; non res, et agentia verba Lycamben. 

Yet the bitterness of Archilochus, we may observe in passing, does, 
notwithstanding, occasionally prevail ; and Lycambes was not, 
perhaps, more keenly assailed than Menas, Msevius, and Canidia ; 
to the last of whom, and her daughter, the poet is thought to 
apologise in the XYIth Ode of his 1st Book. Cassius Severus is 
even warned to beware of the fate of Lycambes : 

Cave, cave ! namque in malos asperrimus 

Parata tollo cornua, 
Qualis Lycambce spretus infido gener. 3 

Catullus and Bibaculus wrote iambics ; still, as Quinctilian informs 
us, 4 they were not professed iambographers, and perhaps Horace 
did not consider their works of this nature sufficiently perfect to 
entitle them to notice. But the more probable ground of Horace's 
assumption is that he first introduced the epode ; for we learn from 
Quinctilian that it did not appear in the iambics of Catullus or 
Bibaculus. 5 It is true that the Epode Hymns of Lucilius are men- 
tioned ; but these were, in all probability, compositions widely 
removed from the Horatian Epode ; perhaps written in the Pindaric 
measures. 6 The " Parii iambi " are, therefore, those forms of the 

1 2 Ep. ii. 59. 2 Art. Poet. 259. 

3 Epod. vi. 11. 4 Inst. Orat. x. 1. 

5 Such appears to be the meaning of the sentence : " Iambus non sane a 
Romanis celebratum est ut proprium opus: a quibusdam interpositus : cujus 
acerbitas in Catullo, Bibaculo, Horatio ; quanquam illi epodos intervenire 
reperiatur." The word illi seems more applicable to " Horatio " than to " iainbo." 
There is no epode poem in the works of Catullus, as now extant. 

6 'Encoded and 'EircpSol are very different. The former are stanzas added to 



74 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 



Ethics and 
Criticism. 



iambic measure which the book of Epodes exhibits. Gesner quotes 
a passage from the Enchiridion of Hephsestion which places this 
matter beyond a doubt. 1 EtVt fie eu reus Trou^ao-i ku\ oi dpprjvUais 

ovtco Kakovfjievoi £7r<u5oi, orav fxeyttXco crrt'^a) irepiTTov tl enKpeperai, 
olov' 

Ylarep Ay/ca^/Sa, iroiov £<ppdcrw r6Be ; 
Ti eras Traprjeipt cpptvas ; 

The quotation is from Archilochus, and is exactly the same metre 
with 

Ibis Libumis inter alta navium, 
Amice, propugnacula. 

The epode is not necessarily iambic, but is a name applied to any 
metre consisting of a longer and shorter line alternately. Of this 
measure Archilochus is the reputed inventor, as is expressly asserted 
by Terentianus Maurus : 2 

Hoc [epodon] doctum Archilocbum tradunt genuisse magistri ; 

Tu mihi, Flacce, sat es : 
" Diffugere nives : redeunt jam gramina campis, 

Arboribusque comae." 

Marius Victorinus is no less explicit : Archilochus primus Epodos 
excitavit, alios breviores, alios longiores, detrahens unum pedem seu 
colum metro, ut illi subjiceret id quod ex ipso detractum esse videba- 
tur. Horatius ejus exemplum sequutus est in ed Ode : 

" Solvitur acris hyems grata vice Veris et Favoni ; 
Trahuutque siccas machinse carinas." 

From these testimonies it appears that the Parian or Archilochian 
iambic was the epode : of which Horace was the earliest Latin 
writer. Bassus was afterwards celebrated for his iambics, as we 
find from Ovid : 3 " Bassus quoque clarus Iambo" 

The division of Horace's Poems remaining to be noticed is his 
Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry, which are all referable to one 
head, that of familiar and moral discourses or essays. The original 
spirit of these productions has gone far towards supporting the 
hypothesis, that the old Saturce and the Ennian Satire were wholly 
of Eoman origin. Without the slightest appearance of dictation or 
assumed authority, they contain more real good sense, sound 
morality, and true philosophy, than perhaps any single work of 
heathen antiquity: and their frequent perusal has a tendency to 



the stropbe and antistrophe ; the latter, poems in which a shorter verse is added 
to the longer. The derivation of both is from e7ra5w, accino. 

1 In lib. Epod. Horatii. 

2 Terentianus has been made, absurdly enough, to call Archilochus the inventor 
of epic poetry ! See Bayle's Dictionary, Art. Archilochus, note (k). 

3 Trist. 10. 



HORACE. ETHICAL AND CRITICAL WRITINGS. 75 

make the reader satisfied with himself and others, and to produce Horace. 
on his part a conduct at once conciliatory towards the world, and 
consistent with his own independence and integrity. They are well 
described by Persius : — 

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico 
Tangit, et admissus circum praecordia ludit, 
Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso.i 

Their character has been exquisitely drawn by one w 7 ho had imbibed 
a large portion of their spirit : 2 

Horace still charms -with graceful negligence, 
And without method talks us into sense ; 
Will, like a friend, familiarly convey 
The truest notions in the easiest way. 
He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, 
Might boldly censure, as he holdly writ, 
Yet judg'd with coolness, tho' he sang with fire; 
His Precepts teach but what his Works inspire. 

Another more diffuse and general character of his writings is con- 
tained in the following stanzas of De la Motte : — 

Qu'Horace connut bien l'elegance Romaine ! 

II met le vrai dans tout son jour, 
Et l'admiration est toujours incertaine 

Entre la pensee et le tour. 
Sublime, familier, solide, enjoue, tendre, 

Aise', profond, naif, et fin ; 
Digue de l'univers ; Tunivers, pour 1' entendre, 

Aime a redevenir Latin. 

There is, however, an observable distinction between the Satires 
and the Epistles. The former, as Bahr 3 has remarked, possess 
more of the objective character, the latter are more subjective : in 
the former, the poet takes his cue commonly from objects or events 
around him; in the latter, he speaks more from himself. The 
Epistles, too, are, for the most part, graver and more regular in 
their matter, as well as more ornate in their diction. Their form, 
and the period of their composition, concur to produce this dis- 
tinction. AVe will not do our readers the injustice to withhold the 
elegant and truthful criticism of Dean Milman 4 on this portion of Dean 
the works of Horace : — " Of him it may be said, with regard to the M: 
most perfect form of his poetry, the Epistles, that there is a period 
in the literary taste of every accomplished individual, as well as of 
every country, not certainly in ardent youth, yet far from the 
decrepitude of old age, in which we become sensible of the extra- 

1 Sat. i. 118. - Essav on Crit. 653. 

3 Geschicht. der R. L. II., § 125, 126. 

4 Life of Horace prefixed to his editiou. 



criticism. 



of 
•writings 



76 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

lorace. ordinary and indefinable charm of these wonderful compositions. It 
seems to require a certain maturity of mind ; but that maturity by 
no means precludes the utmost enjoyment of the more imaginative 
poetry." 

Chronology It would scarcely be possible, even if profitable, in a work like the 
present, always to adjust the chronology of even the most celebrated 
pieces which Roman antiquity has left us ; but that of Horace's 
writings may seem to demand some more especial notice, inasmuch 
as it has not only exercised the industry and research of critics, 
but some idea of it is absolutely necessary to the due comprehension 
and appreciation of these precious remains. 

Bentley asserts that Horace not only published each book 
separately ; but even that he was never engaged in lyric and satiric 
poetry at the same time ; that he never wrote an ode while he was 
employed in completing a book of satires, epistles, or epodes. With 
respect to the publication, there is every reason to suppose that it 
took place in separate books, and that Bentley's arrangement is 
substantially correct. Canon Tate, in his " Horatius Restitutus," 
adopts it implicitly. The high authority of Mr. Fynes Clinton, 
while allowing that " the dates of Bentley (which are given upon 
conjecture), are, in some cases, at variance with facts," admits the 
general exactness of the great critic. " And it is probable," he 
adds, " that although these works were originally published in 
books, and in tlie order assigned by Bentley, yet, in the present 
copies, some pieces may have been transposed. * But Bentley 
entered little into the feelings of a poet, especially a poet of 
Horace's cast, in supposing that so various and versatile a genius 
could sit down to the composition of a book of odes or satires, 
and never deviate from the line which he prescribed. Such an 
hypothesis is contradictory to all the history of poetical genius, 
and to every external and internal evidence connected with the 
writings of Horace. Though Bentley's chronology has been sharply 
assailed by continental scholars, the confirmation of the "Fasti 
Hellenici" may amply compensate his memory for the severest 
attacks. He has, at least, established the order of publication 
almost beyond dispute ; and this is not unimportant. His criticisms, 
derived from a comparison of external history with the contents of 
the Horatian poems, have received confirmation from a quarter which 
even his sagacity did not anticipate. Canon Tate has clearly demon- 
strated, from a comparison of the first three books of Odes with the 
fourth, that the versification is more artificially constructed in the 
latter, and that time and practice had produced a more sensitive 
ear and a severer taste. 

We subjoin a scheme of chronology according to several high 
authorities. 

i Fast. Hell. a. c. 37. 



HORACE. MODE OF LIFE. 



77 



Bentley. 1 Bernhardy. Kircliner. Obbarius. Grotefend. Passow. Franke. Milman. 

1 Sat, . . TT.C. 714-716 713-719 } 7l o_ 79ft ( 719 715-719 713-714 713-719 719 

2 Sat 719-721 720-727 j ' liWZD \ 724-725 724 723-724 719-724 722-724 

Lpodes .... 722-723 713-7242 713-724 712-723 715-723 723 713-724 725 

1 Od 724-726 I f l7iq_ 7 qS ") 

2 0d 728-729 I 734 -^715-736 730-732 724-736 j-' liW<w L730-731 

3 0d 730-731 J ( 735 J 

1 Ep 734-735 733 727-739 734-735 733-737 720-734 730-734 735 

Carm. Ssec. . . \ 7 o 7 7An ( 737 737 737 737 737 737 737 

4 0d | t0i '* u (aft. 739 736-744 742 738-746 737 737-741 741 

2Ep aft. 740 l 74 o_ 74fi f 741-743 \ f . „.. f 733-737 l 734 _ 74fi 740 74fi 

Ars.Poet. . bef.740 } 74d - 74fa 1 744-746 | att ' 741 jaft. 737 y 6 ^ 1 ^ 74J-746 

To return to the subject of our biography. Horace 

Seven years had elapsed from his first acquaintance with Maecenas Mode of life. 
when Horace composed the YIth satire of his Ilnd book ; he was 
then settled in his Tiburtian villa, enjoying poetical and philosophical 
leisure, and in possession of more than his wishes. It was in this 
dignified retirement that he became " noble in iEolian song," 3 and, 
while he was within sight of the waywardness and vanity of man- 




Tivoli. — Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl. 

kind, was yet too far above their atmosphere to imbibe its splenetic 
contagion, and lose his temper and happiness in the survey; his 
own failings bore their due proportion in the picture ; and, while he 
treated them with no more indulgence than those of others, he 



1 The dates of Bentley are corrected to what he himself intended, from Clinton, 
who shows that he has committed a prochronism of one year. (Fast. Hell. 
A. d. 17.) The last year mentioned is that of publication. 

2 Time of writing. Publication somewhat later. 3 4 Od. iii. 12. 



73 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Virgil. endeavoured, in sowing the fertile soil of his mind, to disencumber 

it of whatever weeds might impede its culture. l 

Eclogues. While Horace, from circumstances which promised very different 

results, was thus enjoying the favour of the 
great, and the approbation of the wise, Virgil 
was no less studious of the opportunities 
which his own good fortune had given him 
of enriching his country's literature. His 
local situation, added to his mode of living, 
had engendered in him a strong perception 
of the pleasures of rural life. The beauties 
of Theocritus, therefore, were deeply felt by 
him, and we have already noticed the 1st 
and IXth Eclogues, in which he attempted 
to convey their spirit in his native tongue. 
Martyn, however, conjectures that the Alexis 
and Palamon were the earliest in point of 




Virgil. 



composition, from the following passage in the Dajphnis : 

Hac nos te fragili donabimus ante cicuta : 

Haeo. nos : u Formosum Corydon ardebat Alexin :"' 

Haec eadem docuit : " Cujum pecus? an Melibcei?" 

He then makes the Daplmis the third in order. His argument is : 
"As the poet does not give the least hint here of his having composed 
any other, it seems probable that these were the three first Eclogues 
which our author composed." 2 The subject is scarcely of sufficient 
importance to demand a formal refutation of Martyn's argument, 
which is certainly defective. Suffice it to state that about this 
time the Bucolics were completed. We shall prefer taking a 
sketch of the Bucolic Muse, as she appeared attired in the Latian 
garb by the hand of Virgil. 

No department of Greek Poetry promised less to the Latin 
imitator than the Pastoral. The poems of Theocritus, Bion, and 
Moschus, are distinguished by a simplicity equally remote from 
epic majesty and sordid rusticity. Every charm of the country 
has been rifled to adorn them, and almost every deformity carefully 
concealed. If the Eomans were unfortunate in possessing no 
Attic dialect for dramatic expression, the want of a Doric was 
a still greater obstacle to success in the Pastoral. This dialect at 
once removed the reader from the town, while it afforded the 
Muse every facility of utterance. The lordly language of Imperial 
Eome was ill suited to convey the unpremeditated effusions of 
unlettered herdsmen. If Virgil, therefore, has fallen very far short 



1 Hor. 1 En. xiv. 5. 
2 On tbe order of the Eclogues, see Bahr. Gesch. d. Rom. Lit. §. 13/ 
the references. 



and 



HORACE. VIRGIl/s ECLOGUES 79 

of his great prototype, the difficulty of his attempt must not be virgfl. 
forgotten. Indeed, he appears not insensible of it himself ; and, 
by the nature of the language in which he composed, he has been 
compelled to abandon his original intention, and to attempt loftier 
nights than the nature of Pastoral Poetry strictly justifies. 

The Eclogues of Virgil possess one remarkable characteristic : 
they are allegories. This at once introduces a great difference 
between them and the Theocritean Idyl. The allegorical veil is, 
sometimes, allowed to fall, and the shepherds who represent the 
Poet and his friends converse like scholars and philosophers. It 
has been a great question, whether the Alexis partakes of this Alexis. 
figurative character ; many are of opinion that it is merely an 
imitation of the 'Epaar^ of Theocritus ; while others, who discover 
Virgil in Corydon, yet believe the poem an offering to friendship. 
The latter opinion we consider inadmissible. All the grammarians 
identify the poet with Corydon ; but the real name of Alexis is a 
matter of considerable doubt. The opinion mentioned by Servius, 
that Augustus was intended, scarcely deserves to be noticed. Some 
make Alexis to have been Alexander, a slave of Pollio ; but most 
probably he belonged to Maecenas. Although it would be perhaps 
impossible distinctly to remove this imputation from Virgil, 1 
Juvenal, most assuredly, did not make any allusion to it in the 
following lines, which Dryden has most grossly amplified and 
perverted : 2 

si Virgilio puer et tolerabile deesset 

Hospitium, caderent omnes e crinibus hydri, — 
Surda nihil gemeret grave buccina. 

There are many difficulties in believing this to have been the first of 
Virgil's compositions, on the supposition of Alexis being the slave 
either of Maecenas or Augustus ; inasmuch as, in that case, it must 

1 Donatus observes, " Boni ita eum pueros amasse putaverunt, at Socrates 
Alcibiadem, et Plato suos pueros." — Vit.Virg. 20. Charity "hopeth all things ;" 
but the state of heathen morality, even among the most intellectual and refined, 
was such as to allow and indulge abominations which, in any professedly Christian 
society, however rude, would cover their perpetrators with infamy : and whatever 
may have been the conduct of Virgil, Horace, Catullus, Tibullus, and others, 
they have not hesitated to follow Greek examples of this nature in their writings. 
It is, however, right to observe that the Roman poets generally claimed the 
privilege of bad morals on paper, while they renounced it in act. See in particular 
Catull. xvii. ; Ovid. Trist. ii. 154 ; Mart. i. 15 ; Plin. Epist. iv. 14 ; and Hadrian's 
epitaph onYoconius. Profligate literature was no disgrace, rather otherwise, even when 
a profligate life would have been infamous. The peculiarity of Virgil's case, however, 
is, that he makes no such apology for himself, and, indeed, needs it less, perhaps, 
than any of his extant contemporaries ; while yet his identity with his "Corydon" 
appears, from external evidence, to be indubitable. On this account his memory 
bears a stain which those of Horace and Tibullus, who have written as offensively, 
have commonly escaped. 

2 Sat. vii. 69. 



80 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Virgil. have been written before we have any account of Virgil's acquaint- 

ance with either. That Virgil intended himself by Cory don, was 
believed by his contemporary Propertius, who also identifies him 
with Tityrus. 1 Martial and Apulejus make no doubt of it. 2 

PoiUo. But the most extraordinary composition of Virgil is his Pollio, 

a poem which has been the subject of endless conjecture. The 
much litigated and unsettled question, " whom was it intended to 
commemorate ? " we shall pass over, as not materially connected 
with our subject ; only observing that this honour has been ascribed 
to the young Marcellus, to a son of Pollio, to a son of Augustus, 
to Asinius Gallus, to Drusus, and, lastly, even to Augustus himself. 3 
What is principally worthy of notice is, that this poem exhibits a 
coincidence with the Sacred Writings too close to be fortuitous. 
That the Greeks had acquired, indirectly, some acquaintance with 
the histories of the Hebrew Scriptures, is not to be doubted ; as 
Hesiod and Ovid, the expounders of their theology, have clearly 
discovered it ; and it is probable that Theocritus, at the Court of 
Ptolemy, had seen the Sacred Volume, and even borrowed its 
phraseology. But, in this poem, Virgil only imitated Theocritus 
in the structure of the composition ; for, with one or two exceptions, 
there is no similarity in details, which, in Virgil, resemble an 
epitome of Scripture prophecies of the Messiah. Though much of 
the fabulous history of the early world is corrupted from Holy 
Scripture, the Greeks, in general, were ignorant of its source, and 
were too much possessed with a contempt for " barbarian" literature 
to study, much less to imitate, the Hebrew writers. The universal 
contempt entertained for the Jews at Rome made it still less 
probable that their literature would meet imitation, or even perusal, 
there. An intelligent writer, 4 indeed, imagines that he has dis- 
covered an avowal, on the part of Virgil, of his intention to avail 
himself of the treasures of Hebrew poetry, in the line 5 

Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas; 

but to this it is only necessary to reply, that the line cited was not 
written until after the Pollio was composed. The inquirer must, 
therefore, advance on other ground, than that of supposing that 
Virgil accommodated the prophetic Scriptures to his purpose. The 
poet has, indeed, given us a clue in our inquiries ; he has asserted 
that his prophecies are taken from the verses of the Cumsean 
Sibyl. The fable of the Sibyl's interview with Tarquin is well 

1 2 Eleg. xxxiv. 73. 

2 Mart. viii. 56, v. 16; Apul. Apolog. i. 13. 

3 The last opinion is maintained at great length, in a work entitled, " Obser- 
vations in Illustration of Virgil's celebrated Fourth Eclogue." London, 1810. 

4 Notes on the " Caliph Vathek." 

5 Georj?. iii. 12. 



HORACE. VIRGIl/s POLLIO. 81 

known. The books which, she was supposed to have given to the virgn. 
Komans were destroyed in the conflagration of the Capitol during 
the Marsian war ; emissaries were then despatched by the Senate 
throughout Italy, Greece, Asia, and the coasts of Africa, to collect 
the best authenticated prophecies of the various Sibyls ; and the 
collection thus made was called " Cumaum Carmen" because it was 
compiled to supply the loss of the writing of the Cumsean Sibyl. In 
this miscellany it is nothing improbable that prophecies of the great 
Person then about to appear should be found ; especially when it 
is recollected that Tacitus and Suetonius have borne witness to the 
general expectation of such a Person then prevalent in the East. 1 
It is also remarkable that JElian mentions the Jewish sibyl, 
together with the Cumsean ; 2 her oracles, therefore, which were, 
probably, in substance the same as the prophetical writings, were 
likely to be in the collection. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the 
authority of Varro, asserts that such of the prophecies as were not 
genuine, were written in acrostichs. 3 Eusebius has preserved a 
pretended acrostich oracle of the Erythraean Sibyl, the initial letters 
of which form the words IH50Y5 xpistos ©eot tios SHthp 
2taypo2; but this is, evidently, a forgery on the bare inspection. 
We have <rapg used for mankind, ei'ScoXa for idols, and in one 
place the very words of Scripture have been quoted : " Qprjvos r Ik 
ndurcov earai, ml fipvypos 6h6vTo>v." Constantine, in his " Aoyos ro> 
Ta>v ayicou avXXoyco " gives a very elaborate interpretation of the 
Pollio, with a Greek translation of the greater part of it, and asserts 
that the oracle, whence it was taken, was translated by Cicero into 
Latin verse, and annexed to his poems. We have now no trace of 
this translation, if it ever existed : but it is a curious circumstance, 
that Cicero informs us that the Sibylline oracles did predict a King, 
and were written in acrostichs. 4 If any name were mentioned in 
them, it must have been Cornelius ; as we find from Cicero, 6 Sallust, 6 
Plutarch, 7 and Appian, that the pretence which Lentulus adduced 
for his connexion with Catiline was a Sibylline prophecy, por- 
tending that the Empire of Eome was to be given to three Cornelii ; 
that Cinna and Sylla were the two former, and the third was to be 
himself. It is by no means improbable that, among the prophecies 
copied from the Jewish Scriptures, or gleaned from Jewish tradition, 
which were, in all probability, found among the Sibylline writings, 
the great subject of prediction was called bx pp, the power of 
God, s which would, assuredly, have been translated Cornelius by 
the Eomans. 

1 Tac. V. Hist. ix. Suet. Vespas. iv. 3 Antiq. Rom. iv. 62. 

2 Var. Hist. xii. 35. 4 De Div. ii. 54. Cf. etiam Quinct. v. 10. 
5 3 Cat. iv. 6 Bell. Cat. ' Vit. Cic. 

8 Christ is called " the power of God " in 1 Cor. i. 24 ; and tcepas f|Tjy 
(xwrripias in St. Luke, i. 69. The number three, thus applied, may have been 
derived from some Old Testament intimations of the Holy Trinity. 

[k. l.] g 






82 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

tirgil. The author of the ingenious and elaborate Observations, who 

conceives that Virgil meant to refer the Sibyl's prediction to 
Augustus, imagines the whole poem to be a metrical horoscope, 
and discovers a clear explanation of every expression and allusion 
contained in it, by a reference to the phraseology of astrological 
art. How far this author is bigoted to hypothesis, may be 
conjectured from his application of the following lines to the sign 
Aries : 

Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam suave rubenti 
Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto. 

Two lines before occurs the verse 

Robustus quoque jam Tauris juga solvet arator; 

and there can be no doubt that the same ingenuity, had this line 
followed those above cited, would have given an equally convincing 
interpretation of tauris. Any mind unsophisticated by hypothesis 
cannot fail to perceive that the poet is describing a time of universal 
opulence and rest, when agriculture and commerce should be alike 
unnecessary : and when the ram in the meadows (not in the skies,) 
should wear his fleece, without the dyer's labour, attired in the 
most costly and splendid colours. 1 
Daphnis. That the Daphnis was composed, like Milton's lycidas, to 

commemorate the death ' of some real person, is scarcely to be 
doubted. That Menalcas represents Virgil is evident from the 
conclusion, wherein he states himself to be the author of two of 
Virgil's Eclogues. Mopsus, according to Servius, is iEmilius Macer 
of Verona, who wrote a poetical history of serpents, plants, and 
birds, in imitation of Nicander, and a supplement to the Iliad, 
called ArdeJiomerica and Posthomerica. Bernhardy, Bahr, and 
others, after Wernsdorf, attribute, however, the epic and didactic 
poems to different writers of the same name. 2 If Daphnis be a 
personification, Julius Csesar is the only person whom the character 
can pourtray, as Heyne justly observes : although he believes the 
poem to be merely a commemoration of the celebrated Sicilian 
shepherd. Servius and Donatus make Daphnis the poet's brother 
Flaccus. An uncertain epigrammatist has the following distich : 

Tristia fata tui dum fles in " Daphnide " Flacci, 
Docte Maro, fratrem Dis imniortalibus sequas. 

Gaiius. Virgil concluded his Bucolics with an elegant compliment to 

1 The reader desirous of prosecuting the subject of Virgil's Pollio is referred 
to the following works : Heyne's Virgil ; Cudworth's Intellectual System, book i. 
c. iv. sec. 16 ; Martyn's Virgil ; and Blondel, De Sibyllis. 

2 Bernhardy, Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 434 ; Aeussere Geschichte, 83. 
Bahr, Geschichte der Rom. Lit. § 83 ; Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt. Minn. torn. iv. 
p. 579. 



HORACE. VIHGIl/s ECLOGUES. GALLTJS. 83 

Cornelius Gallus, a celebrated contemporary poet, born at Forum Virgil. 
Julii, in Gaul, about Virgil's own age, and his fellow pupil under 
Syron, consoling him for the loss of his Lycoris, whom the old 
commentators assert to have been an actress, whose real name was 
Cytheris. She was the freed-woman of Volumnius Eutrapelus, 
and took the name of Yolumnia. As she was familiar with Antony, 
the old commentators have supposed that she deserted Gallus to 
accompany Antony on his Gallic expedition. Heyne, however, 
in his argument of the Gallus, has shown, from chronological 
considerations, that this could not be the case. The genuine poems 
of Gallus, with the exception of a few fragments, are lost. They 
consisted of four books of elegies, called Amoves or Lycoris, and 
a translation of EupJiorion, as we learn from Servius. A pretended 
edition of the works of Gallus was published by Pomponio Gaurico, 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century ; but the fraud was soon 
detected in Italy, and Tiraboschi attributes these poems, * according 
to common report, to a certain Maximinian, who flourished in the 
time of Boetius. As an elegiac poet, Gallus ranked very high in 
public opinion. Ovid speaks of his fame as universal ; Propertius 
and Martial have borne testimony to his excellence ; and Virgil, in 
his beautiful and extraordinary Vlth Eclogue, has panegyrised his 
EupJiorion in the noblest strains of mythological eulogy. Virgil 
had also, according to Servius, celebrated his praises in the 
conclusion of his Georgics. Gallus was no less distinguished as 
a warrior than as a poet ; he was of great service to Augustus 
in the Egyptian war, and assisted in securing the person of 
Cleopatra. He was, in consequence, constituted the first prefect of 
Egypt. Here he appears to have conducted himself with arrogance 
and insolence. He was afterwards condemned to banishment by 
the command of Augustus, on suspicion of having conspired against 
him ; a sentence which, however, the poet anticipated by a voluntary 
death, tj. c. 728; and Virgil, at the instance of the emperor, 
substituted for his eulogy on Gallus the fable of Aristmis. 

The publication of Virgil's Bucolics created a powerful sensa- 
tion in literary Kome. The grammarians tell us that they were 
recited on the stage; 2 and that, on one occasion, when Cicero 
was present in the theatre, and heard some verses of the Silenus 
recited by Cytheris, he called for the whole eclogue, and, when 
he had heard it through, exclaimed, " Magna spes altera JRomce" 
This cannot be true, for Cicero was then dead : but we have better 
authority for the truth of the honours publicly lavished on Virgil. 
Prom the author of the Dialogue de Oratoribus' 6 we learn that, when 
some verses of Virgil were recited on the stage, and the poet 

1 Storia, part. iii. lib. iii. sec. 27. 

2 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ; Serv. in Eel. vi. 11. 

3 Dial, de Orat. xiii. 

G 2 



84 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Horace and happened to be present, all the spectators rose, and paid him the 
Virgil. same marks of respect which they would have shown to Augustus. 

Propertius l has celebrated the conclusion and publication of the 
Bucolics, and Ovid 2 has foretold their immortality. 

Following the chronology of Bentley, which we have in the main 
adopted, we must refer the publication of Horace's 1st Book of 
Satires to nearly the same date with that of Virgil's Bucolics. We 
shall presently have to notice a different opinion. In the Xth 
Satire of that Book, Horace gives the following sketch of the 
poetical proceedings of the day : 

Turgidus Alpinus jugulat dum Memnona, dumque 
Diffingit Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo : 

* * * ' * 

* * * * 

Arguta meretrice potes, Davoque Chremeta 
Eludente senem, comis garrire libellos, 
Unus vivorum, Fundani. Pollio regura 
Facta canit pede ter percusso. Forte epos acer 
Ut nemo, Varius ducit : molle atque facetum 
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Caincenae. 

If Bentley's chronology be correct, there can be no foundation for 
the remark with which Heyne opens his preface to the Georgics : 
" Ad Georgica facetum Mud ac molle, quod peculiar i aliquo Musarum 
munere Virgilio concessum esse Horatius memorat, propria quodam 
modo spectare videtur." It may not be irrelevant to estimate the 
force of this eulogy on Yirgil, by reference to the exposition of 
duinctilian. "Facetum" says the critic, "non tantum circa ridicula 
opinor consistere. Nee enimdiceret Horatius, facetum carminis genus 
naturd concessum esse Virgilio. Decoris Tianc magis et excultce 
cujusdam elegantice appellationem puto. Ideoque in Epistolis Cicero 
hoc Bruti verba refert : nee Mi sunt pedes faceti, ac deliciis ingre- 
dienti molles. Quod convenit cum illo Horatiano, molle atque 
facetum Virgilio" 8fc. 3 

Some light may be thrown on the poetical history of the period, 
by an examination of this concise review. This, therefore, we 
shall take, before we proceed with what more immediately relates 
to the subject of our biography. 
Alpinus. Who "Alpinus" was, is a question as yet undecided. Priscian 4 

mentions an Alpinus who wrote a poem on the exploits of Pompey. 
Dacier and Torrentius suppose him to be Aulus Cornelius Alpinus, 
who wrote a tragedy, intituled Memnon, in imitation of one bearing 
the same name by iEschylus, and that he is here sarcastically said 
to have murdered the hero, and anticipated the stroke of Achilles. 
The Scholiast says that the Memnon was an hexameter poem. The 
word Alpinus, however, is generally considered, by commentators, 

1 ii. 34. 2 1 Am. 12. 3 Quinct. vi. 3. 4 vii. 5. 



HORACE. — CONTEMPORARY POETS. 85 

to be the designation of the poet's Qountry, the Alps, and, taken Horace and 
in this sense, it is applicable to many. Cruquius, without the Virg 
shadow of an argument, refers it to Cornelius Gallus. Acron inter- 
prets the appellation of Yivalius, which Bentley and Sanadon 
conjecture to be a corruption of Bibaculus, of whom they suppose 
Alpinus a nickname. M. Eurius Bibaculus, to whom we have Bibaculus. 
before alluded as the writer of many small pieces, was also the 
author of a poem on the Gallic wars, l a verse of which has been 
preserved by Horace and Quinctilian ; the former of whom has 
noticed the bombastic character of his style : 

pingui tentus omaso 
Furius " hybernas canst nive conspuit Alpes : " 

the epithet here applied corresponds to " turgidus ; " and from the 
line 

Jupiter hybernas cantl nive conspuit Alpes 

it is probable that he derived his appellation Alpinus. He was 
born at Cremona. The subject of his poem might, very naturally, 
lead him to a description of the Ehine. Of Eundanius we know Fundanius. 
nothing beyond what is here recorded ; but we shall have occasion 
to notice this passage of Horace presently, which we shall find to 
throw some light on the Augustan drama. C. Asinius Pollio, poiiio. 
here mentioned as a tragedian, was illustrious no less in his 
political than his literary character. We have already noticed 
the conjecture that he recommended Yirgil to Msecenas ; and the 
old biographer of that poet tells us that the Bucolics were 
completed at his desire. Yirgil speaks of him in terms of high 
commendation: 2 

Pollio amat nostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam : 
* * * * 

Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina ! 

where the word " nova" seems to imply unprecedentedly beautiful. 
And to Pollio is supposed to be addressed the YIHth Eclogue, in 
which the following apostrophe occurs : 

En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem 
Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothumo / 

His dramas seem only to have been intended for the closet. 3 
An anecdote, preserved by M. Seneca, 4 is characteristic of the man 
and of his pretensions. Sextilius Haena (or Eta as in some copies), 
a poet of more talent than learning, unequal in his compositions, 

1 Bernhardy, however, attributes this poem to Aulus Furius of Antium. 
Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 366 and 430. 
, 2 Eel. iii. 84. 3 Weichert de Vario. 148. 4 Suas. vi. 



*m 



S6 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace and and not free from the heavy and foreign character attributed to 

Virgil. ^ p 0e ^ s f Corduba, invited Pollio, among others, to hear his 

recitation of a poem on the proscription of Cicero. The place of 

meeting was the house of Messala Corvinus ; and no sooner had 

the poet commenced 

Deflendus Cicero est, Latiseque silentia linguae, 

than Pollio, turning to Messala, said, " You can do as you please, 
Messala, in your own house ; but I shall not stay to listen to one 
who considers me silent ;" and, with these words, left the room 
abruptly. Although he doubtless referred to his forensic talents, 
it is probable that his estimate of his poetical capabilities was not 
inferior. Horace, no less than Virgil, was intimate with Pollio, 
and dedicated to him the 1st Ode of the lid Book, wherein he 
recommends him to resume the composition of Tragedies, which 
his History of the Civil Wars had interrupted. 
Varius. The high eulogium here passed on Lucius Varius Rufus, and 

the appellation " Maonii carminis ales," bestowed on him by Horace 
in the Vlth Ode of the 1st Book, have been before alluded to, as 
well as his tragedy of Thyedes. But the loss of his works is, 
perhaps, a less calamity than the literary world ordinarily suppose. 
His excellence in the drama, where this branch of poetry was, in 
general, so unsuccessfully cultivated, might be comparatively great, 
and yet absolutely moderate : and as he was the earliest epic of 
any tolerable eminence in the new school, he might easily be 
unrivalled where there was no emulation. Antonius lulus, the 
author of the Diomedea, had not arisen ; and if it be said that 
Yarius was not strictly unrivalled, because there was his contem- 
porary, C. Valgius Bums, who has received from Tibullus the exag- 
gerated panegyric, " ceterno propior non alter ffomero," the answer 
would be easy, even on the supposition that the IYth Book of 
Tibullus is genuine, which, as we shall see, there is every reason 
to doubt. The judgment of Horace on this subject is infinitely 
more valuable than that of Tibullus. Yarius and Yalgius were 
both friends of Horace : and he acknowledges the value of their 
approbation : but he never, for a moment, admits a competition 
of poetical excellence. The elegies of Yalgius might influence the 
partialities of Tibullus towards a poet of a similar cast with 
himself; and private friendship might extort and excuse an hyper- 
bole which his own judgment, and that of an unbiassed public, 
could not sanction. A similar observation may be made on the 
equally extravagant panegyric which Propertius has passed on 
Ponticus, the author of the Thebaid. 1 Yarius, therefore, at this 
time seems to have been undisputed master of the epic, and that, 



Incidental 
notice of 
Valgius. 



1 Eleg. vii. 



HORACE. CONTEMPORARY POETS. 



87 



because the honour was by no means warmly contested. Macrobius, Horace and 
in the second chapter of the YIth Book of the Saturnalia, cites some Vir & il - 
verses of Yarius, " de Morte" (sc. Julii Caesaris). The following are 
the most complete, as a specimen of his style : 

Ceu canis umbrosam lustrans Gortynia vallem, 
Si veteris potuit cervse comprendere lustra, 
Ssevit in absentem, et, circum vestigia lustrans, 
' iEthera per nitidum tenues sectatur odores : 

Non amnes illam inedii, non ardua tardant, 
Perdita nee serse meminit decedere nocti. 

As hound Gortynian, through the umbrageous vale 

That scents the wild-deer's covert on the gale, 

Prone on the track that speeds with faithful aim, 

And tears in fancy the far-distant game : 

Nor streams, nor heights, impede : e'en when astray, 

Still through the lonesome night she snuffs the tainted way. 

He composed a panegyric on Augustus, from which, if we are to Varius. 
believe the Scholiast on Horace, that poet took the following lines, 
which he inserted in the XYIth Epistle of his 1st Book : 

Tene magis salvum populus velit, an populum tu, 
Servet in ambiguo, qui consulit et tibi et urbi, 
Jupiter ! 

These passages, although far too brief and scanty to enable us 
to form any clear conception of the genius of Yarius, are yet 




"Virgil. 



promiscuously selected, and contain nothing in favour of the felicity 
of his epithets, or the melody of his versification. 

The poetical power which the Bucolics discovered, induced 



00 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Virgil. Maecenas, almost as soon as they were finished (about u. c. 717), 

to request Virgil to undertake the Georgics. The neglected state 
of agriculture, in consequence of the civil wars, might be the 
reason why Maecenas chose this subject for Virgil's Muse : and 
indeed this condition of the country is graphically described by the 
poet himself: 1 

Ubi fas versa atque nefas ; tot bella per orbem, 
Tarn multae scelerum facies : non ullus aratro 
Dignus honos : squalent abductis arva colonis, 
Et curvse rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. 

But we must not suppose the statesman to have conceived that the 
military settlers could be moved by an exquisite poem to the cul- 
tivation of their estates. The fact was, that a more effectual and 
more delicate expedient for calling the attention of Augustus to this 
important subject could not be imagined ; and in his power lay a 
great portion of the remedy. 
Georgics. Of the character of the Georgics it is unnecessary to speak, 

because no reader of this memoir can be ignorant that this poem 
is the most elaborate and extraordinary instance of the power of 
genius in embellishing a most barren subject, which human 
wit has ever afforded. The commonest precepts of farming are 
delivered with an elegance which could scarcely be attained by 
a poet who should endeavour to clothe in verse the sublimest 
maxims of philosophy. Indeed, one consideration alone is sufficient 
to show us the excellence of Virgil in this particular — the uniform 
failure of his imitators. It is, however, much to be regretted that 
he was not free to choose his own subject, as, in all probability, 
he would have selected a theme better suited to his muse. It is 
said that the poet, while employed on this immortal work, com- 
posed many verses every morning ; but, by the evening, reduced 
them to a very few ; so that he used to compare himself to a bear 
which licks her shapeless offspring into form. 2 

According to the computation of Donatus, or the writer of the 
Life of Virgil ascribed to him, the poet must have been at Naples, 
after six years' attention to the Georgics, when Augustus under- 
took the expedition against Antony, which ended in the decisive 
victory of Actium. It was on this occasion that Horace is supposed 
to have written his magnificent Ode ad Romanos (Epod. xvi.). 
His friendship and gratitude towards Maecenas had now obtained 
their zenith, when the statesman was suddenly called to attend 
his master on his perilous expedition, which bade fair to decide 
the possession of the Eoman world. In the 1st Epode, Horace 
expresses his fixed resolution to accompany his patron whither- 

1 Georg. i. 162. 
8 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ix. ; Quinct. Lib. x. 3 ; Aul. Gell. xvii. 10. 



HORACE. PEDO. 89 

soever his fortune might lead him : not that he could hope to Horace and 
contribute to his security, but to escape the anxieties of absence. VirglL 
Whatever may have been the reason, there is good cause to 
believe that Maecenas never left Italy. Dio, l Tacitus, 2 and Yelleius 
Paterculus, 3 all assert that at that time the care of the city was 
intrusted to him by Augustus. Yirgil has given a most elaborate Battle of 
poetical picture of the battle of Actium, without making any mention Actlum - 
of the exploits of Maecenas; an omission of which he could 
scarcely have been guilty, had his patron borne a part in so conspi- 
cuous a scene; and this negative argument derives additional 
strength from another of the same kind, drawn from the silence 
of Horace respecting Maecenas in his triumphant Ode on the same 
occasion (Lib. i. Od. xxxvii.). That Maecenas took part in the 
battle of Actium has been attempted to be proved from an elegy 
on his death ascribed to Celsus Pedo Albinovanus, which expressly 
asserts the fact ; but the meagreness of the composition, and its 
historical inaccuracy, have caused it to be rejected by most scholars, 
as the production of a later period. Three elegies are remaining 
to us, which have been ascribed to this Pedo ; that just men- 
tioned ; another, which seems to be a continuation of it, called 
Mcecenas Moribundus ; and the Consolatio ad Liviam, which, however, 
is also attributed to Ovid. Prom the latter author, whose friend 
Pedo was, we learn that he wrote a poem on the exploits of 
Theseus. 4 He is coupled by Quinctilian 5 with Eabirius, as not 
unworthy of perusal ; and Seneca 6 quotes from him some verses 
on the voyage of Grermanicus, as a favourable contrast to the 
marine pictures of other Latin poets; but really as inferior to 
Virgil and Ovid as to the bolder strains of Attius and Ennius. 
Prom Martial's testimony he appears to have been an epigram- 
matist. 7 If he were the same as Celsus (Hor. i. Ep. iii. 15), 
which seems doubtful, he was, according to the account of Horace, 
an enormous plagiarist. Dacier lays great stress on the following 
verses of Propertius, as supporting the hypothesis that Maecenas 
was at Actium : 8 

Quod mini si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent, 
Ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus, 

* * * * 

Bellaque, resque tui memorarem Caesaris ; et tu 

Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores. 
Nam quoties Mutinam, et civilia busta Philippos, 

Aut canerem Siculae classica bella fugae, 



1 Lib. li. 2 Ann. vi. 11. » ii. 

4 Ep. ex Pont. iv. 10. 5 x. 1. 6 Suasor. 1. 

7 v. 5. s 2 Eleg. i. 



90 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace and 
Virgil. 



Cassius of 
Parma. 



Aut regum auratis circumdata colla catenis, 

Actiaque in sacrd currere rostra via, 
Te mea Musa illis semper contexeret armis, 

Et sumta. et posita pace, fidele caput. 

But this would equally prove that Maecenas took part in the battle 
of Philippi. The IXth Epode has been thought by some to favour 
the opinion that Maecenas accompanied Augustus ; and Desprez, 
in his notes on that poem, deliberately tells the reader that it was 
addressed to Maecenas in his absence on that occasion. The student, 
by consulting the poem itself, will find nothing, however, positive 
about the situation of Maecenas at that time. To this poem, 
to the very elaborate analysis given by Masson, in his Life of 
Horace, and to the answer of Dacier, prefixed to his edition of the 
poet, the reader desirous of more precise information on this 
subject is referred. 

Horace was, at this time, about thirty-six years of age ; so that, 
if Bentley's chronology of his works be true, the 1st Book of his 
Satires had seen the light eight years. Masson, however, refers the 
Xth Satire of that Book to this date, relying, principally, on his 
account of the death of Cassius of Parma, who was reported, 
according to this passage, to have been burned with his books. 
Cassius of Parma was put to death at this time at Athens, by the 
direction of Augustus, for having espoused the cause of Antony. 
We should rather be disposed, as scholars now generally are, to 
refer what Horace here says to another Cassius, than disturb the 
chronology of Bentley. Whoever he was, it is nothing wonderful 
that his books should supply him with a funeral pile, when it is 
considered that he was in the habit of composing four hundred 
verses every day. Of Cassius of Parma Horace speaks expressly 
in his epistle to Tibullus : 

Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana ? 
Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat? 

These verses are understood seriously and ironically by different 
critics. The word " opuscula," however, is sufficiently descriptive 
of his poems, which were chiefly elegies or epigrams. The Scholiasts 
on Horace attribute to him tragedies also, and relate that Varus, 
who was sent to execute on Cassius the orders of Augustus, 
embezzled his papers, and from them produced the tragedy of 
Thyestes. This is the celebrated work which has been before 
mentioned, as the production of Yarius, of whom we have had 
occasion to speak, and who has here been confounded, as in other 
places, with Varus. The grammarians, however, as if determined 
to deprive Varius of the credit of this tragedy, have attributed it 
to Virgil. ! A poem called Orpheus, consisting of nineteen lines, 



Donat. Vit. Virg. xx. ; Serv. in Eel. iii. 



HORACE. VIRGIL. GEORGICS AND .ENELD. 91 

and which, if genuine, must have been only a fragment of a larger Virgil. 
composition, was given to the world by Achilles Statius, as the 
work of Cassius of Parma, discovered among the Bruttii. But as 
Statius did not condescend to enter minutely on the evidences of 
its genuineness, there is every reason to believe that it was a forgery. 1 
The poem may be found, with numerous illustrative references, in 
the second volume of Wernsdorf's comprehensive and accurate 
edition of the Latin minor poets. 

To the year following the battle of Actium, the completion of 
the Georgics is commonly assigned. At what time the JEheid The mmid. 
was first projected, is uncertain; but Virgil, like our Milton, 
appears from a very early period to have had a strong desire of 
composing an epic poem, and, like him also, to have been long 
undecided on his subject. That he had attempted something of 
the kind, before the eclogues were finished, is evident from these 
verses in his Silenus : 

Quum canerem reges etprcelia, Cynthius aurem 
Vellit, et admonuit, — 

and his ambition to produce some work of distinguished excellence 
is attested by the ardent exclamation in the opening of the Illrd 
Georgic : 

Tentanda via e6t, qu& me quoque possim 
Tollere humo, victorque virum \olitare per ora. 

Even in his Culex, which he is said to have written at fifteen years 
of age, he gives promise of higher things : 

Posterius graviore sono tibi Musa loquetur 
Nostra, dabunt quurn securos mihi tempora fructus 
Ut tibi digna tuo poliantur carmina sensu. 

He is said to have begun a metrical chronicle of the Alban 
kings, but afterwards to have desisted in consequence of the 
harshness of the names. 2 After the completion of the Georgics, 
or, perhaps, some short time before, he laid down the plan of a 
regular epic on the wanderings of iEneas, and the Roman destinies ; 
to form a sort of continuation of the Iliad to the Eoman times, The riiad 
and to combine the features of that poem and the Odyssey. The and 0dyiteym 
idea was sufficiently noble, and the poem, long before its publication, 
or even conclusion, had obtained the very highest reputation. While 
Virgil was employed on the JEmeid, " quo nullum Latlo clarius exstat 
opus," Propertius wrote with generous admiration : 

Cedite, Romani scriptores ! cedite, Graii ! 
Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade ! 



1 Bernhardy attributes it to Antonio Telesio tbe Neapolitan. (Grundriss der 
Rom. Lit. Anm. 320.) 

2 Donat. Vit. Virg. viii. ; Serv. in Eel. vi. 



92 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Virgil. Augustus, while absent on his Cantabrian campaign, wrote 

repeatedly to Virgil for extracts from his poem in progress ; but 
the poet declined, on the ground that his work was unworthy the 
perusal of the prince. The correspondence is recorded by Macrobius, 
in the 1st Book of the Saturnalia; but its genuineness is very 
questionable. 

It would be palpably superfluous, in a work of this nature, to 
attempt an elaborate criticism on this great poem, familiar from 
their childhood to all persons of education. Most scholars are 
agreed that it wants the natural freshness and freedom of Homer, 
while it exhibits a degree of art, elegance, and majesty never 
attempted in any poem, save the Georgics of its author. It may, 
however, be pertinent to remark, that, smooth and uniform as its 
surface seems, it is really, in great measure, mosaic. That Virgil 
should have translated whole passages out of Homer, or even the 
Alexandrine writers, is no matter of censure : he and his contem- 
poraries would have thought the absence of such " purpurei panni" 
a defect ; and the high authorities of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser, 
Camoens, and Milton ratify their opinion. But the same cannot 
be said of plagiarisms from Latin authors. How unscrupulously 
he appropriated whole verses of Ennius, of Lucretius, of Lucilius, of 
even his friend Varius, and of others, the curious reader may find 
in the Vlth Book of Macrobius's Saturnalia, which will abundantly 
repay his perusal. It may be right to add that the JEneid is 
a most conspicuous evidence of the learning, diligence, and 
antiquarian research of its illustrious author. 

[* Availing himself of the pride and superstition of the Eoman 
people, which never abounded more than during the Augustan 
age, the poet traces the origin and establishment of the " eternal 
city " to those heroes and actions which had enough in them of 
what was human and ordinary to excite the sympathy of his 
countrymen ; intermingled with persons and circumstances of an 
extraordinary and superhuman character, to awaken their admiration 
and their awe. No subject could have been more happily chosen. 
It has been admired too for its perfect unity of action ; for while 
the episodes command the richest variety of description, they are 
always subordinated to the main object of the poem, which is to 
impress the divine authority under which iEneas first settled in 
Italy. The wrath of Juno, upon which the whole fate of iEneas 
seems at first suspended, is at once that of a woman and a goddess : 
the passion of Dido, and her general character, bring us nearer 
the present world ; but the poet is continually introducing higher 

1 The portion bracketed is taken, with slight alterations, from the article uEneid, 
formerly printed in the lexicographical part of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. 
The writer is unknown to the present editor. 



HORACE. VIRGIl/s ^NEID. 93 

and more effectual influences, until, by the intervention of the Virgil, 
father of gods and men, the Trojan name is to be continued in 
the Roman, and thus heaven and earth are appeased. 

Hinc genus, Ausonio mixtum quod sanguine surget, 
Supra homines, supra ire Deos pietate videbis ; 
Nee gens ulla tuos aeque celebrabit honores. 
Annuit his Juno, et mentem lsetata retorsit. 

jEneid, xii. 841. 

The style, for sweetness and for beauty, occasionally, and in the 
author's finished passages, surpasses almost every other production 
of antiquity. "I see no foundation," says Dr. Blair, "for the 
opinion entertained by some critics that the Mneid is to be 
considered as an allegorical poem, which carries a constant reference 
to the character and reign of Augustus Csesar ; or that Virgil's 
main design' in composing the Mneid, was to reconcile the Romans 
to the government of that prince, who is supposed to be shadowed 

out under the character of iEneas He had sufficient motives, 

as a poet, to determine him to the choice of his subject, from its 
being in itself both great and pleasing ; from its being suited to 
his genius, and its being attended with peculiar advantages for the 
full display of poetical talents. " l 

The first six books of the Mneid are the most elaborate part 
of the poem. The imperfections of the Mneid are alleged to be 
want of originality in some of the principal scenes, and defectiveness 
in the exhibition of character. That of Dido is by far the most 
decided and complete. But Voltaire has justly observed upon the 
strange confusion of interest excited by the story of the wars in 
Italy, in which one is continually tempted to espouse the cause of 
Turnus rather than that of iEneas ; and to which the exquisite 
scenes for displaying the tenderness of the poet in narrating the 
story of Lavinia, seem to have been his only temptation.] 

On his return from the Cantabrian expedition, debilitated by 
exertion and disease, it is probable that Augustus wrote to 
Maecenas the letter mentioned by Suetonius in his Life of Horace, 
in which he offered the poet the office of his private secretary. 
"Ante" says he, "ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistolis amicorum : 
nunc occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum te cupio adducere. 
Veniat igitur ab istd parasitica mensd ad Jianc regiam, et nos in 
scribendis epistolis jitvabit." Horace declined the offer : and the 
emperor, so far from discovering the least resentment, continued 
towards him his friendship and familiarity. In the letters which 
he afterwards addressed to him, he entreated him to assume the 
liberties of an intimate associate, and, with a felicity which only the 
Greek expression can attempt, courted his acquaintance : " neauesi 

1 Lectures on Rhetoric, vol. iii. 



94 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

VirgflL ut superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti, idea nos quoque uvQvn-fp- 

(f)pOVOVfl€V. >n 

For five years after trie return of Augustus, Horace continued 
to enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity, in the most perfect conceiv- 
able independence, although mingling with the utmost intimacy 
among the great and powerful, who sought his society even to 
obsequiousness. At the end of this period an event occurred 
which forms a prominent feature both in the biography of the 
poet, and in the poetical history of the time. Virgil, who had 
just revised and altered the Bucolics and Georgics, with a view 
to giving the ultimate polish to the JEneid, which he had now com- 
pleted, projected a tour in Greece and Asia. With a dread almost 
prophetic, and an ardour not disproportionate, Horace addressed 
the ship whicn bore his departing friend : 

Sic te Diva potens Cypri, 

Sic fratres Helens, lucida sidera, 
Ventorumque regat pater, 

Obstrictis aliis, praeter Iapyga, 
Navis, quae tibi creditum 

Debes Virgilium, fiuibus Atticis 
Reddas incolumem, precor, 

Et serves animse dimidium meae ! 2 

So speed tbee Cyprus' goddess brigbt, 

So Helen's brethren, those twin lords of light ; 
So the great sire of every wind, 

None, save the soft North-west, for thee unbind — 
O bark, I thee implore, 

Thy charge, my Virgil, to the Attick shore 
In safety waft across the wave, 

And thus the half of my existence save ! 

At Athens Virgil met with Augustus, who was returning from 
Samos, where he had wintered after his Syrian expedition, to Eome. 
Changing his former intention, Virgil determined to accompany 
his patron. On a visit to Megara he was seized with a sudden 
indisposition, which his voyage increased, and he died a few days 
after his arrival at Brundusium, in his fifty-second year. On his 
Death of death-bed he earnestly desired that his JEneid might be burned, 
^ nsi1 ' and even left in his will an injunction to that effect. Being, 

however, informed by the celebrated Varius and Plotius Tucca, 
(the same who is mentioned by Horace, in his journey to Brun- 
dusium,) that Augustus would not permit the destruction of his 
poem, he left it to them to publish, on condition that they would 
make no additions to the text, even for the purpose of supplying 
an unfinished verse. How far his executors were faithful to their 

1 Or av9vTrepr)(pavovfj.€v, as some read ; which is perhaps better. 
2 Lib. i. Od. iii. 



HOE ACE. 



-DEATH OE TIEGIL. 



95 



trust, must now be uncertain ; several unfinished verses are Virgil. 
extant in the JEneid ; but the terminations of some complete lines 
render it not improbable that they have been supplied by another 
pen. The biography and the writings of Yirgil have, unfortunately, 
fallen into the hands of ignorant grammarians and monastics, who 




Tomb of Virgil. 

have most miserably corrupted both. It is not the object of this 
memoir to relate all the absurd legends with which his biographers 
have disfigured his history : the curious reader, however, may 
derive amusement from the perusal of the article Virgile, in Bayle's 
Dictionary, in which several anecdotes concerning the magical 
powers of the poet are selected, which probably arose out of his 
well-known attachment to the study of natural philosophy. The 
corruptions of his writings are chiefly to be found in his minor 
poems. Donatus mentions, as his acknowledged works, the Virgil's 
Catalecta, the Moretum, the Priape'ia, the Epigrams, the Dira, and JJJ,^. 
the Culex ; and notices a poem called JEhia, the genuineness of 
which he considers doubtful. This poem is to be found, illustrated 
with copious dissertations, and notices of the authors to whom it 
has been ascribed, in the fourth volume of Wernsdorf's Poetce 
Minores, where it is attributed to Lucilius Junior, a writer of the 
time of Xero. To these, Servius adds the Oirina, which is the 
same with the Ciris, before noticed as ascribed to Catullus, and the 
Copa. The Catalecta are miscellaneous little poems, mostly in 
the style of Catullus. One Epigram, intituled Votiun pro susceptd 
jEneide, will not be ungrateful to the reader : 



96 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Virgil. 



Si milii susceptum fuerit decurrere munus, 

O Paphon, 6 sedes quae colis Idalias ! 
Troius JEneas Romana per oppida digno 

Jam tandem ut tecum carmine vectus eat : 
Non ego thure modo, aut picta tua templa tabella 

Ornabo, et puris serta feram manibus : 
Corniger hos aries humiles et maxima taurus 

Victima sacratos tinget honore focos ; 
Marmoreusque tibi, Dea, versicoloribus alis, 

In morem picta stabit Amor pharetra. 
Adsis, 6 Cytherea ! tuus te Caesar Olympo, 

Et Surrentini litoris ora vocant. 



Dweller of Papbos and bright Idaly ! 

If thou shalt grant ray toils auspicious end, 
And Troy's iEneas, guided on by thee, 

Through Latian towns in worthy strain shall wend : 
Not limner's art alone, or fragrant cloud, 

Or flowers from holy hands shall grace thy fane; 
The horned ram, the bull (thank-offering proud !) 

With generous stream thy hallowed hearth shall stain 
Of marble mould, with wings of many a dye, 

And painted quiver, Love shall stand for thee : 
Then haste ! thy Caesar calls thee from thy sky : 

Surrentum calls thee by the glittering sea. 




Surxentum. 



It is scarcely necessary to distinguish the Catalecta from the 
Epigrammata. The nature of the Priape'ia, it is obviously unne- 
cessary to investigate. The work now extant under that title is, 
substantially, Augustan, but the character of Virgil forbids us to 



97 

suppose that his pen has contributed to it in any important Virgil. 
degree. The Dins is a poem attributed, as we have already seen, 
to Valerius Cato. The Moretum is a piece oJL very peculiar 
beauty ; and approaches nearer to Theocritus in spirit than any of 
the Bucolics. It bears also a remarkable resemblance to Bloomfield's 
Farmer's Boy. It is a lively description of a rustic's day, and 
takes its name from a kind of salad, called Moretum, the making 
of which is described in it. The Cojpa is a Bacchanalian invitation 
in the person of a Copa, or Syrian woman, who attended, as a 
dancer or singer, on houses of public entertainment — " Ambu- 
baiarum collegia" 

Of all the minor poems, however, ascribed to Virgil, the Culex Cuhx. 
is, for many reasons, the best deserving notice. Whatever doubts 
may be thrown on the genuineness of the others, there seems to be 
every reason for believing that this poem, allowing for all its gross 
and manifold corruptions, is the work of Virgil. That Virgil wrote 
a poem bearing this name cannot be questioned ; for, besides the 
testimony of Donatus and Servius, we have the more respectable 
evidences of Martial, 1 Statius, 2 and Lucan, 3 for the fact. Donatus 
quotes two verses from the poem, and Nonius Marcellus one, which 
are found in the extant copies. The poem, however, seems to have 
suffered much from alterations and interpolations. Allowing for 
these, it must have been a very beautiful production, and by far the 
most original effort of Virgil's muse. It opens with a dedication to 
Octavius ; who this Octavius was is a matter of uncertainty. In 
the Catalecta mention is made of a certain Octavius who died in a 
paroxysm of anger occasioned by drinking ; if this person be, as 
some commentators suppose, the same to whom the Culex is 
addressed, he cannot be the Octavius of whose opinion Horace 
speaks so highly in the Xth Satire of his 1st Book, since the 
Catalecta were, according to Donatus's account, completed when 
Virgil was fifteen years of age. 4 From the dedication, the poet 
proceeds to a most glowing description of sunrise, and a goatherd 
driving his flock afield : and thence takes occasion to indulge in a 
long digression on the happiness of rural life, which, though less 
polished, is more winning and pathetic than the corresponding 
passage in the Georgics. He has not, indeed, surpassed in intensity 
of relish for the country his great model Lucretius ; but he has 
amplified him with great taste and independence, and this passage, 
taken all in all, is one of the most vivid and delicious in the whole 
range of Latin Poetry. Prom this, Virgil returns to his short 
narrative. The noon approaches, and his rustic hero seeks the 
shelter of a grove to enjoy his siesta. While he is sleeping, a 

1 viii. 56. and xiv. 185. 2 2 Sylv. vii. 74. Id. Prsef. Sylv. lib. i. 

3 Suet. Vit. Lucani. 4 Some, however correct, twenty-five. 

[R. L.] H 



98 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Virgil. serpent is on the point of destroying him, when a gnat, perceiving 

his danger, gives notice to him by a timely sting. Enraged with 
the insect, of whose benevolent intention he is ignorant, he instantly 
crushes him. At night, however, the shade of the gnat appears to 
him, and, after a poetical but tedious description of the regions of 
the departed, reproaches him for his ingratitude. In this passage 
the reader may trace the sketches from which Virgil afterwards 
drew his finished pictures of the appearance of Hector, and the 
descents of Orpheus and zEneas. The goatherd, on awaking, as 
the only compensation in his power, erects a monument to his 
benefactor, with an inscription, which concludes the poem : 

Parve Culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti 
Funeris officium vitse pro munere reddit. 

Virgil, by his amiable and conciliatory life, had established himself 
in the esteem of all the most eminent of his literary contemporaries. 

Anser. From Donatus, however, we learn that Anser declined his acquain- 

tance from party considerations, being himself attached to Antony, 
in whose praise he composed a poem. This Anser is called by 
Ovid " Cinnd procacior ." 1 Yet the splendour of Virgil's success 
attracted many to perish in the blaze which they sought to extin- 
guish. On the appearance of his Bucolics, an anonymous author 
published a dull parody, called Antibucolica ; and one Carvilius 
Pictor, in imitation of his worthy prototype Zoilus, composed an 
JEne'idomastix. Bavius and Msevius, proverbial names for the 
impersonation of united dullness, envy, and calumny, attacked 

Comifidus. Virgil ; and Cornificius, also, appears to have written against him. 
The works of this poet are compared by Ovid to those of Valerius 
Cato : 2 they were, therefore, probably, satirical productions in the 
style of the Dirce, or amatory pieces, which Cato is said to have 
written, and traces of which are to be found, as we have seen, in 
the Lira, as now extant, itself. Virgil is said to have retaliated 
on Cornificius under the name of Amyntas, in his Alexis and 
Dap/mis. 3 But the most triumphant refutation of his adversaries 
has been the judgment of posterity. No writer, probably, ever 
exercised so wide an influence either in time or space. His works 
became forthwith, and still remain, textbooks and schoolbooks; 
they were even translated into Greek ; they were commented on by 
a cloud of grammarians ; they were the subject of innumerable epi- 
grams ; they were formed into centos ; 4 they were used for the 

1 ii. Trist. 435. 2 lb. 436. 3 SerV- in Ecl> iL and v# 

4 CENTO, Gr. nivrpuv, originally a needle, and in a secondary sense a garment 
of patchwork (sewed together by needles) ; hence the word is metaphorically 
applied to a poem composed of verses or parts of verses taken and put together 
from other authors. Tertullian (de Prcescript. 39) seems to imply that the 
Medea, the lost tragedy of Ovid, was a cento from Virgil. The nuptial Idyl of 
Ausonius (which deserves another epithet than that of "pleasant," bestowed upon 



HOEACE. — YIEGIL. 99 

purposes of divination. Virgil was the model of the Carlovingian virgii. 
poets ; the " Magnus Apollo " of the chivalrous Yon Valdeck ; Dante 

it by Mr. Cambridge, and copied from bim by Mr. D'Israeli) is the next in 
antiquity which is extant. The poet, in his introduction to this " literary folly," 
frivolum et nullius pretii opusculum, -which he appears to have put together at 
the command of the Emperor Yalentinian, has given some rules by which similar 
compositions may be regulated. After describing it antithetically as de inconnexis 
continuum, de dirersis unum, de seriis ludicrum, de alieno nostrum, he proceeds 
to state that a Cento is formed by taking lines from various places, and applying 
them in a new sense. A line may be taken entire or divided, but two lines must 
never be taken together. It is observable, however, that Ausonius himself has 
not adhered to his own rules. A Cento from Homer on the life of our Saviour 
has been ascribed to the learned Athenai's, better known as the Empress Eudocia. 
It has been repeatedly printed, but the silence of Photius, and of many authors 
besides, who have mentioned other -works of Eudocia, have induced most critics to 
deny her claim to this insipid performance (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. 357), and it is 
more generally attributed to Pelagius, who lived under Zeno in the fifth century. 
That of Proba Falconia (the wife of Anicius Probus, a Prsetorian Prsefect under 
the Emperor Gratian) on the same subject, from Virgil, is believed to be more 
genuine. It may be found in the Bibl. Patrum. In the sixteenth century the 
Capilupi of Mantua, Laelius and Julius his nephew, were celebrated artizans in 
this species of trifling. The best known performance of the first is Cento 
Yirgilianns de vita Monachorum quos fratres appellant. It was printed at 
Basle, in 1556, in an octavo volume entitled Yaria doctor um piorumque vir or um 
de corrupto Ecclesice statu Poemata. To these writers may be added Heinsius, 
who has made various attempts of this kind, Spera de Pomerico, and Alexander 
Ross in his Yirgilius Evangelizans. In our own days the achievements of the 
heroic Nelson have furnished a distinguished scholar with a theme, which, under 
the title Brontes, he has managed with considerable ingenuity, and parts of 
which may be accepted as specimens of this sort of composition in general. In 
allusion to Lord Nelson serving under Lord St. Vincent in the Agamemnon, the 
poet has the following lines : 

( Proposuit nobis exemplar 1 maximus Heros, 2 

Res Agamemnonias, victriciaque arma secutus 3 
Ejus qui 4 claruni Vincendo nomen habebat. 5 

Again, on his commanding the Elephant, at the battle of Copenhagen, 
quid illo Cive tulisset 



Natura in terris aut Roma beatius unquam, 
Si circumducto captivorum agmine et omni 
Bellorum pompa, animam exhalasset opimam, 6 
Cum Gsetula ducem" — nomen quoque monstra dedere s 
Roboribus textis 9 — portaret bellua luscum : l 
Atque indignantes in jura redegerit Arctos. 2 

Buonaparte is thus described : 

Unns homo tantas 3 quern misit Corsica 4 strages 
Ediderit. 5 



1 Hor. 1 Ep. ii. 18. 


2 JEn. vi. 192. 3 JEn. iii. 54. 


4 Hor. 4 Od. via. 18. 


5 Ovid. Met. v. 425. 6 Juv. x. 278. 


" Juv. x. 158. 


s Ovid. Met. ii. 675. 9 JEn. ii. 186. 


1 Juv. x. 158. 


2 Claud, de iv. Cons. Hon. 336. 


3 JEn. ix. 783. 


4 Juv. v. 92. 5 JEn. ix. 783. 




H 2 



100 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Virgil. exulted in his guidance ; and the later poetry of all Europeans has 

done homage to his supremacy. In person, according to Donatus, 
Virgil was tall; his complexion was dark, his expression rustic, 
his manners shy, and of almost feminine modesty. These particulars 
may very well be traditional. 

Death and The death of Virgil was shortly succeeded by an event scarcely 
less afflicting to Horace and to literary Rome : 



notice of 
Tibullus, 




Te quoque Virgilio comitem non sequa, Tibulle, 

Mors juvenem catnpos misit ad Elysios, 
Ne foret aut elegis molles qui fleret amores, 

Aut caneret forti regia bella pede. 1 

Albius Tibullus had been associated with Horace, if not by the 
bonds of intimate friendship, yet by the sympathies of liberal 
pursuits ; to his candour and discrimina- 
tion Horace submitted his ethical writings, 
and from Horace he received counsel and 
consolation in the sufferings of disap- 
pointed love. 2 If the Vth Elegy of the Illrd 
Book be genuine, he was born u. c. 711, 
the same year as Ovid. But this is very 
unlikely, as on this calculation he must 
have died at the age of twenty-four. In 
consequence, some critics carry the birth 
of Tibullus twenty years back from this 
date. He was of an equestrian family, and 
served under M. Valerius Messala Corvinus 
Tibullus. i n the Gallic wars. The real name of his 

Delia, as we learn from Apuleius, 3 was Plania; and it is probable that 
Glycera was disguised under that of Nemesis. On his return from 

And, lastly, his vain -wish to invade Britain is given as follows : 

Eia age 6 sollicitos Galli dicamus amores ! 7 
Toto namque fremunt condensee litore puppes. 8 
Uritur interea ripse ulterioris amore. 9 
Fata obstant, tristique palus inamabilis unda. 1 

[This note is reprinted from the lexicographical part of the former edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. The author is unknown to the present editor, who 
only remarks that the Cento of Ausonius, if we are to believe its compiler, was 
certainly written at the desire of Valentinian ; and that the evangelical Cento from 
Homer seems rather hardly dealt with, when its extraordinary ingenuity is 
considered.] 

1 Domitii Marsi Epigramma. 2 1 Ep. iv. and 1 Od. xxxiii. 

3 Apolog. 106. 

6 ffin. iv. 569. 7 Eel. x. 6. ^n. viii. 497. 

9 JEn. vi. 314. 1 JEn. vi. 438. 



HORACE. TIBULLTJS. — PROPERTIUS. 



101 



his third military expedition with his patron Messala, he retired to Tibuiius. 
his seat near Pedum, between Preeneste and Tibur, to enjoy, appa- 
rently, after a life devoted to the cares and excitements of passion, 
the advantages of that true philosophy, which, teaching him to 
regard every morning as his last, made each completed day wear 
the welcome appearance of an unexpected friend. It was here that 
he polished those beautiful prod actions, which have immortalized his 
name ; which breathe, in the refined language of his period, though 
martin" cially, the spirit of unambitious domestic enjoyment, the 
pure love of nature and country life, the delights of peace, retire- 
ment, affection, and friendship (subjectively, however, rather than 
graphically) ; and (as Bernhardy has criticised with no less truth 
than beauty) " the quiet peacefulness of an almost childlike dispo- 
sition." x It was here that he lived in the society of the most 
eminent contemporary poets, and that he died u. c. 735 or 736, 
bewailed by the Muse of Ovid. It is tolerably clear, both from 
external and internal considerations, 
that not all the poetry we possess 
under the name of Tibuiius is genuine. 
The two first books of elegies are un- 
disputed ; but the third is doubtful, 2 
and the fourth almost undoubtedly 
spurious ; especially the panegyric 
on Messala. 

In elegy, which he had wrought 
to the highest degree of excellence, 
as most modern readers will agree with 
Quinctilian, 3 Tibuiius was succeeded 
by S. Aurelius Propertius, who was 
born about u. c. 700, at Mevania, in 
Umbria. 4 He lost his father early, 
and was educated for the bar. But, 
driven from his country possessions, as has been already mentioned, Propertius. 
he came to Pome, where he associated with Maecenas, and the 
chief literary men of his time. Pew particulars are known of his 
life. The real name of his " Cynthia " was Hostia, as we learn 

1 M Die Tibullische Muse athmet den stillen Frieden eines fast kindlichen 
Geruiiths." — Granclr. cler Rom. Lit. § 94. 

2 Ovid knew only two mistresses of Tibuiius, Delia and Nemesis, (3 Am. ix.) ; 
but the heroine of the third book is Nesera. Moreover, the author calls himself 
Lygdamus ; an assumed name, probably ; but Tibuiius, in all likelihood, would 
have assumed a name prosodiacally correspondent to bis own. The author may 
have been Cassius of Parma, as Oebecke conjectures. 

3 " Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus ; cujus mihi tersus atque elegans maxime 
videtur auctor Tibuiius ; sunt qui Propertium malint." — Quinct. x. 1. 

4 4 Eleg. i. 125. Notwithstanding the direct testimony of the poet himself, 
Ameria, Hispellum, and Assisium have been assigned by different critics. 




Propertius. 



^ 



102 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 



Carmen 
Sceculan 






Lyric 
Poetry. 



from Apuleius. 1 She was a poetess, 2 and was probably descended 
from the poet Hostius, 3 of whom mention has been already- 
made. Propertius, though an amatory poet, was permitted to be 
read by the Fathers of Trent : a distinction probably granted to his 
learning and stiffness, which disfigure his pathos, while they mitigate 
his lubricitas. His obscurity, in this point of view, may also have 
weighed in his favour. He was the avowed imitator and rival of 
Callimachus and Philetas ; and, therefore, is far less original and at- 
tractive than Tibullus : though the reputation of his four books of 
elegies has been deservedly high, from their first appearance till the 
present day. He meditated an epic ; but he felt himself unequal 
to the task, and acted on the principle of the sound Horatian 
maxim. 4 He appears to have died under forty years of age. 

Horace was now approaching his fiftieth year, and the loss of 
two friends, with whom he had been so long associated, threw back 
on his heart a tide of generous affection, which soon flowed towards 
his early and benevolent patrons Augustus and Maecenas. The 
former, at once to prove his friendship for the poet and his 
admiration of his genius, selected him to compose the hymn to be 
sung in honour of Apollo and Diana at the Saccular games. This 
poem is, in all respects, extremely valuable; for not only is it a 
composition of high intrinsic excellence, but it is the only consider- 
able extant specimen of the lyrical part of the Roman worship. The 
hymn of Catullus cannot endure any comparison with it, although 
probably written for a similar occasion. The Carmen S<scula?'e, in. 
most editions, begins with "Phoebe, sylvarumque potens Diana" and 
ends with " Dicer e laudes" Some scholars, however, among whom 
is Sanadon, take a far more extensive range. They make the poem 
consist of three parts, with a sort of prelude or introduction, which 
is supplied by the first stanza of the 1st Ode of the Hlrd Book. 
On the first day, say they, were sung the seven first stanzas of the 
YIth Ode of the IVth Book ; on the second, the XXIst Ode of the 
1st Book : and on the third, the poem, commonly reputed the 
Carmen Sceculare, followed by an Epilogue, which is furnished by 
the remaining stanzas of the Vlth Ode of the IYth Book. Nearly 
the same arrangement is adopted by Anchersen. There is no doubt 
that this arrangement produces a very noble and beautiful structure, 
and that the fugitive pieces which it has been attempted to collect 
into a regular whole have connection with the subject ; there is not, 
however, any evidence beyond internal congruity in favour of this 
ingenious collocation. 

In one sense, the Carmen Sceculare is the most valuable pro- 
duction of Horace for illustrating the genius of its author. That 
the Romans, while they cultivated every other species of the Greek 



1 In Apolog. 

3 See Prop. 3 Eleg. xx. 



2 Prop. 1 Eleg. ii. 27. 

4 3 Eleg. iii. Hor. de Art. Poet. 39. 



HORACE. — LYRICS, — CRITICISM. 103 

poetry, should have neglected the lyric, is easily explained from the Horace, 
unpoetical cast of the national character. Though deficient them- 
selves in invention, they could appreciate and imitate the more 
regulated flights of the Mseonian swan ; but when the " Theban 
eagle" was 

Sailing with supreme dominion 
Through the azure deep of air, 

he was, to their eyes, lost in the clouds above which he was 
towering. Horace was fully sensible of this; and although his 
brilliant eulogium on Pindar proves how entirely he understood and 
felt the beauties of the Theban, he considered a successful effort 
to imitate his style and sentiment impossible. 1 The attempt, 
however, was made by Septimius Titius, supposed to be the same 
to whom Horace addressed the YIth Ode of the Ilnd Book, and 
whom he recommended with so much delicacy and elegance to 
Tiberius. 2 Antonius Bufus was equally venturous. 3 But the real 
success of these poets may be fairly estimated from the judgment 
of Quinctilian, who, as was before observed, considers Horace 
almost the only Latin lyrist worth reading. Although, however, 
lyrical poetry never flourished in Latium, there were occasions when 
it was necessary that it should be cultivated. These were religious 
festivals. On the due observation of the ceremonies of religion, the 
welfare of the State was supposed greatly to depend ; and, as the 
enthusiasm of Boman patriotism is beyond question, it might fairly 
be supposed that in their hymns, at least, there would be traces of 
inspiration. The fact, however, is otherwise. The Carmen Sacn- 
lare of Horace, therefore, is not a composition refined and corrected 
on a long series of approved models, but a production possessing 
the highest excellences of its class, written amidst a people, who, 
with every inducement to cultivate this species of poetry, had 
totally failed in it. So pleased was Augustus with this compo- 
sition, that he commanded Horace to celebrate in an ode the victory 
which Drusus and Tiberius obtained over the Bhaeti and Vindelici, 4 
which poem, together with the book of which it forms a part, was 
published by the emperor's order, in the same year, according to 
Bentley, with the Carmen Bmculare. 

Nor was Augustus desirous alone to have his public successes Epistles to 
embalmed in the verses of Horace. He read the poet's Epistles and Augustus 
Satires, and felt chagrined and discontented because none of them j^qs. ° 
were addressed to himself. " I am angry with you," he writes to 
Horace," because you do not especially choose me to converse with 
in the principal part of your writings of this nature. Do you fear 

1 4 Od. ii. 2 i e p . iii. 

3 Ov. iv. Ep. ex Pont. vi. et Bufmanni not. Bahr considers Valgius Rufus 
intended. Gescli. der Rom. Lit. s. 14b'. 

4 Suet, in Vit. Hor. 



104 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Art of 
Poetry, or, 
Epistle to 
the Pisos. 



lest the appearance of my intimacy should injure you with pos- 
terity ? " ' To this nattering reproof, Horace replied by the 1st 
Epistle of the Ilnd Book, in which he extricates himself from the 
charge of neglect, with that consummate skill and address which 
were so peculiarly his own. From this highly valuable composition 
we obtain materials for the most correct and methodical investigation 
of the whole history of Latin poetry. We have, in the early part 
of this memoir, acknowledged our obligation to Horace in this 
respect ; and it is mainly in consequence of this epistle that this 
obligation is contracted. We have followed its guidance up to 
the Augustan age ; and the present will be the most favourable 
opportunity of examining, by its light, what was at that time the 
general state of poetry, and, in particular, that of the drama. The 
subject and style of The Art of Poetry are so similar to those of the 
Epistle to Augustus, that it will be convenient, both for conciseness 
and perspicuity, to examine them together. 

Dr. Hurd, in his very minute and elaborate commentary on the 
two great critical epistles of Horace, supposes that the Epistle to the 
Pisos was written with a view to the regeneration of the Roman 
drama exclusively; that, on this assumption, the poem is reducible to 
a regular and consistent plan ; and that all which it contains con- 
cerning other departments of poetry may easily be referred to that 
digressive character which is essential to the freedom of epistolary 
writing. No reader will contest the ingenuity of the hypothesis, 
or the plausibility of many of the arguments by which it is 
supported ; yet it is impossible to rise from the perusal of 
Dr. Hurd's observations without feeling that his connexions, in 
many instances, are anything but natural. To find an accurate 
system in Horace is what is not to be expected ; a conversational 
absence of method and a " graceful negligence " have been pointed 
out as his distinguishing features, by an author who entered more 
fully into the spirit of his essays than perhaps any critic or com- 
mentator whatever ; and with respect to the greater number of his 
Satires and Epistles, this opinion neither has been, nor can be, 
controverted. It does not, therefore, appear probable that Horace 
intended, in his Epistle to the Pisos, an exception to the general 
style of his other epistolary writings : or, if such has been his 
intention, never was art more artificially concealed. Later writers, 
among whom are Col man, Wieland, Mittermayer, Orelli, have 
thought it the intention of Horace to deter the Pisos, or some one 
or more of them, from the path of poetry, which they were unquali- 
fied to pursue. That some of that family had trodden it, and, in 
Pliny's opinion, with success, is evident from a letter of that writer 
to Spurinna. 2 It has been too much the fashion to neglect or 



1 Suet, in Vit. He 



HORACE. CRITICISM. 105 

despise the old scholiasts, whereas they are often the only sources of Horace, 
authentic information. Porphyrion tells us that the Art of Poetry 
was principally compiled from the more methodical work of 
Neoptolemus : and as this account appears liable to no objections, 
the most probable conclusion that can be formed on the subject is 
that Horace intended to convey in a popular form the elements 
of critical science, as he had already treated those of the science of 
ethics. 

But although it may not be universally admitted that Horace had 
no other object in writing this epistle than the recovery, if possible, 
of the Koman drama, it might be expected that in a treatise, how- 
ever familiar and unmethodical, on poetry, the drama would claim a 
very peculiar attention ; and that this attention would in no small 
degree be augmented by the extreme degeneracy of that province of 
poetry at the time when this treatise was written. Without entering 
on an investigation of the causes of the disease, which appear to 
have been numerous and complicated, the literary patriot would 
point out to his countrymen the means of remedy, by recalling 
their attention to just models, and well-grounded maxims. And 
this is exactly what Horace has done. Although all his precepts 
are intended for the Koman poet, he admits no other excellence 
(except in subject) than that which the Greeks allowed ; and 
experience proves that, however controvertible may be the efficiency 
of his canons in modern poetry, the Komans, whose main excellence 
was imitation, succeeded precisely in proportion as they regarded 
the laws, which, existing before in the reason of things, or in the 
practice of the Greeks, were digested and elucidated by Horace. 
While reconducting the dramatist, as well as every other poet, to 
the study of those authors from whom the best writers for the 
Koman stage had learned their art, Horace has not been unmindful 
of his father's philosophy, 1 which taught him to ground his precepts 
on example : his rules, though general in their form, glance at 
particular beauties and demerits in Koman authors. The loss of 
the great mass of Latin dramatic literature makes it sometimes im- 
possible to appropriate his allusions, and, occasionally, perhaps, 
to perceive them. A curious passage in Cicero enables us to deter- 
mine the scope of one of these with some certainty. The first 
judgment which the poet passes on the drama, is on the style of its 
versification : 

Versibns exponi Tragicis res Comiea nonvult : 
Indignatur item privatis et prope socco 
Dignis carminibus narrari CCENA THYESTJE. 

Cicero, 2 speaking of the difficulty of understanding the melody of 

1 1 Sat. iv. 1 05, seqq. - Orator, lv. 



106 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. 



Causes of 
Dramatic 
degeneracy. 



poetry adapted to music, quotes the following line from the Thyestii 
of Ennius : 

Quemnam te esse dicam ? qui tarda in senectute — 

and adds: " et qua sequuntur ; auiE nisi quum tibicen accessit, 
okationi sunt solute simillima." There is little doubt, 
therefore, that in this passage the poet designed to illustrate his 
meaning more particularly by reference to this tragedy of Ennius ; 
and this observation may serve as a general view of the conduct of 
the epistle. 

It cannot be distinctly ascertained to whom this epistle was 
addressed : but the conjecture of Dacier is probable ; namely, that 
Lucius Piso may claim this honour, who was Consul u. c. 738, and 
his two sons, Cnseus and Lucius. 

We shall now discuss briefly the causes of what may be called 
the total extinction of the drama, in an age when every other 
department of poetry had reached the meridian of cultivation. The 
want of encouragement afforded to poetry of any kind, which once 
operated so powerfully against the interests of the drama, was now 
removed ; and it might have been supposed that Nsevius and 
Caecilius, Attius and Pacuvius, would have been supplanted in an 
age when Ennius and Lucilius were superseded by Virgil and 
Horace. The truth is, we can never hope to reason correctly of 
the general state of poetry in a nation from that of the drama. 
The former varies with the cultivation of the few ; the latter, with 
the promiscuous taste of the people. At Athens, where the existence 
of a large slave population afforded no inconsiderable leisure to the 
meanest citizens, and every citizen was an integral part of the govern- 
ment, there were necessarily many opportunities and advantages 
for forming a just taste among the people; and to these we may in 
some measure attribute the encouragement which the drama received 
at their hands, and the consequent excellence of their dramatists. 
In the early ages of Eoman literature, the case was widely different. 
While the Attic husbandman was enjoying Aristophanes and 
Menander, the Koman nobleman was at his plough. This state of 
things had yet its relative advantages for the drama. As the 
disregard of literature was nearly universal, there were few literary 
patrons for poets to cultivate ; and hence they were almost compelled 
to appeal for their fame to a theatrical audience. Plays, therefore, 
constituted the principal part of the early Eoman poetry : but their 
judges were too easily pleased, too ignorant of the sources whence 
the poets drew, and too careless, or indifferent, to allow the drama 
to attain that vigorous health and mature proportion which it had 
acquired in Greece. When, therefore, in a happier age, literary, 
and especially poetical, excellence became the certain path to dis- 
tinction and honour, the fluctuating decisions of popular caprice 



HORACE. THE DRAMA. 



107 



were, naturally enough, deserted for the steadier countenance of the causes of 
learned. In the mean time, while learning had been advancing in Seneracy 
the higher classes, the ferocity of the lower remained unmitigated ; 
or, at best, was tempered only by the vices which naturally arose 
out of an unsettled government, a luxurious aristocracy, and an 
intercourse with the refuse of mankind from every part of the known 
world. The Augustan Komans were as little civilised as the audiences 
of Livius and Nasvius ; but they had lost the virtues of uncivilised 
life, and, with these, the power to appreciate and enjoy every thing 
intellectual. 1 

At no time, indeed, does the Roman public appear to have 




The Coliseum. 



entertained a very poignant relish for the drama. Plays were acted 
as part of religious ceremonies ; and the people attended them among 
the customary exhibitions, of which they were generally the least 
attractive, because the least intelligible. Even in the ap:e of Terence, 



1 The causes of the neglect which the Romans manifested towards the Drama, 
especially in the age of Augustus, have heen much canvassed. Several prohable 
hypotheses have heen assigned by Tiraboschi, and by Frederick Sehlegel, in his 
third lecture on the History of Literature. Mr. Dunlop, in his History of Roman 
Literature, has some good observations on the same subject ; but he has pillaged 
most unreservedly from both. 



108 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETEY. 

Causes of the golden period of the Roman drama, buffoons and gladiators could 
degeneracy. a ^ an y ^ me divert the attention of an unlettered and savage audi- 
ence from dramatic entertainments. "When the Hecyra of Terence 
was first brought on the stage, 1 the devotion of the mob to boxers 
and rope-dancers would not allow it to be heard through : when it 
was produced for the second time, a sudden report of a gladiatorial 
combat caused an immediate tumult, and compelled the actors to 
retire. It was soon evident, that a dramatist must trust for his 
success to something else than the excellence of his poetry or his 
plot. As among ourselves, 

(pudet haec opprobria nobis 
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli,) 

no trash was so paltry that it could not pass with the aid of spec- 
tacle ; while Thalia and Melpomene themselves would have been 
hissed from the stage, had they ventured to appear before the 
sovereign people without the statutable proportion of spangles and 
tinsel. That writers of genius, therefore, would descend to a com- 
petition with mountebanks and property-men was not to be 
expected; especially where the result of the contest was so little 
equivocal. 

There is extant a letter from Cicero to Marius, 2 in which the writer 
gives an account of the entertainments presented at Eome in the year 
of the City 698, 110 years after the second rejection of the Hecyra; 
which, as curiously illustrative of the state of the Eoman Drama at 
that time, we shall here partially quote. From this it will appear that 
the ever-memorable Blue Beard is no more to be compared to a 
Eoman spectacle, than Covent Garden theatre to the Coliseum. 
" If you ask how the games were got up, I must say, most splen- 
didly : not at all, however, to your taste, so far as I may judge 
from mine." — " All the pleasure of the audience was engrossed in 
the contemplation of the pageantry : pageantry, the absence of which, 
I can well conceive, you would not have deeply regretted. What 
amusement indeed is afforded by six hundred mules in the 
Tragedy of Clytcemnestra ? or three thousand targeteers, 3 in the 
Trojan Horse ? or the ornamented armour of cavalry and infantry 
in action ? These things command the admiration of the mob, but 
could have afforded no pleasure to you." — "And where is the 
pleasure a cultivated mind can derive from seeing a defenceless man 
mangled by a powerful beast, or a generous beast transfixed upon a 

1 Prolog, in Hecyr. " Ep. ad Familiares, vii. 1. 

3 Craterarum tria millia. Various corrections have been suggested. Graevius 
conjectures the right reading to be cetrarum. The cetra was a kind of buckler 
made of elephant's hide, principally in use among the Spaniards and Africans. 
We offer, as a slight improvement on the reading of Graevius, cetratorum, sc. 



HORACE. — THE DRAMA. 109 

hunting-spear ? " — " On the last day was the battle of the elephants ; causes of 
where there was enough for the mob to admire, but little to be J e r g a ™eracy 
pleased with. Indeed there was a feeling of pity, arising from the 
persuasion that there is some natural sympathy between that animal 
and man." 

This passage of Cicero brings the history of the Eoman Drama 
very near the time of Horace ; it is not matter of surprise, therefore, 
that, when Folly and Cruelty had taken so entire a possession of 
the stage, Virtue and Sense should have failed to resume their 
ground. These seem altogether to have departed with Koscius and 
iEsopus, the Kemble and Macready of that day, who, by preter- 
natural efforts, kept them awhile in flickering vitality. Indeed the 
attempt at restoration would have been useless ; for in the age of 
Horace the contamination had reached the highest classes, who no 
longer sought their pleasure at the theatre in listening to the melody 
of versification, or in acquiring noble and beautiful ideas, but in 
gazing on camelopards, elephants, horses, processions, and combats, 
the exhibition of which would sometimes occupy four hours and 
upwards at a time. Sometimes indeed the knights personally 
engaged as gladiators, 1 and performed in plays. 2 The encourage- 
ment which Augustus and Maecenas gave to literary merit would 
never have been resigned by any sensible poet for the precarious 
and worthless applause of an audience whose restless anxiety for the 
boxing-match or the bear-baiting might break forth in the midst of 
his performance. It is not improbable that this state of the 
Augustan stage has lost us a drama from the pen of Horace. No 
poet ever felt more deeply the charms of the dramatic Muses ; no 
poet ever drew a juster picture of dramatic inspiration ; nor could 
our own great enchanter of Macbeth and Hamlet have been described 
more accurately than in the following lines : 3 

Ille per extentum funem mihi posse videtur 

Ire poeta, meurn qui pectus inaniter angit, 

Irritat, ruulcet, falsis terroribus implet, 

Ut magus : et modo me Thebis, modo ponit Atbenis. 

But Horace judged with Aristotle, 4 that acting is an essential part closet 
of the drama, and, where he could not obtain this, he preferred rama " 
relinquishing dramatic writing altogether, to composing for the 
closet ; a custom which has been always too prevalent when the 
stage is corrupted, and which is often the surest indication of its 
corruption. There were no closet dramas in the days of Attius 
and Pacuvius, of Shakspeare and Jonson ; but we have abundance of 
them now ; and something of the same kind appears in the time of 
Augustus. Pundanius, as we have seen, was pronounced by 

1 Suet. Aug. xliii. 2 Dio. Cass. liii. 56. 

3 Hor. Ep. ad Aug. 210. 4 Poet, passim. 



110 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Causes of 
Dramatic 
degeneracy. 



Horace the first, or rather the only, comic poet of his day. The 
latter, strictly speaking, he was not ; he must have been, however, 
a poet of no inconsiderable comparative excellence : yet it is 
remarkable that not only no work of his has reached us, but that 
we are in total ignorance who he was : his works therefore were, 
in all probability, known to few. But this they could not have 
been, had they been publicly acted. They were, probably, there- 
fore, not intended for the stage, but were only allowed to circulate 
among Ins friends. And this hypothesis derives confirmation from 
the term " MbelM" which Horace bestows on them, an expression 
not frequently applied to dramatic productions. 

Prom Horace's mention of Fundanius, and the silence of all 
other writers respecting him, there is yet thus much to be gleaned : 
either he was a closet dramatist, or, though the best comic poet 
of his age, yet he was an author of very limited celebrity. In 

either of these cases, the miserably 
abject state of the drama is evident ; 
for an author of talent would never 
write dramas merely for the perusal 
of friends, when the stage could 
give him justice and reputation : nor 
can we think very highly of the 
dramatic excellence of a period when 
the best comic writer is an author 
whose name is scarcely known. 
Moreover, the tragedians of the 
period, who were - not numerous, did 
not redeem their paucity by their ex- 
cellence. Titius Septimius, as a cul- 
tivator of Pindaric lyrics, was likely 
enough to have merited Horace's 
description, 

Tragica descevit et ampullatur in arte. 1 

and Puppius, though he drew tears 
from his audience, has left us a better 
standard of his true powers, in the 
sly and quiet laugh which he has 
elicited from Horace. 2 

In further confirmation of the 
hypothesis that the legitimate drama, 
insulted on her proper ground, the stage, had taken refuge in the 
closet, we may observe that closet Mimes, or Farces, existed in 
the time of Julius Caesar. It was usual for the author of these 




Comic Actor in tie Mimes. 



1 Ep. iii. 14. 



~ Ibid. i. 67. 



HORACE. THE MIME. Ill 

pieces to sustain the principal character in them ; yet Decimus g^ses of 
Laberius, a Roman knight, who never designed to perform on the degeneracy, 
stage, wrote no fewer than forty-three of these. Although mimetic 
poetry, like the more regular drama, had decayed before the time 
of Augustus, we have postponed the notice of it to this place, 
because its history is intimately connected with that depravation 
of the stage which could not so conveniently have been noticed 
elsewhere. 

In that unsettled and fluctuating state of polite learning which 
subsided at length into the beautiful and symmetrical fabric of 
the Augustan litreature; when the Greek philosophy and refine- 
ment, imported by Lucretius and Cicero, were struggling with 
the coarser elements of the Soman idiosyncrasy, although there 
existed no cherishing influence to strengthen and guide their opera- 
tions to the production of regular and definite excellence; when neither 
the encouragement of a promiscuous audience, nor the patronage 
of a literary aristocracy, afforded an outlet to the general fermen- 
tation : Poetry, expelled from the stage by Folly, invaded, in 
retaliation, the province of Buffoonery itself, and raised the old 
extemporaneous farces to the dignity of compositions. It has been 
the custom, especially among the late Latin writers, to confound 
the Mime with the Atellane play : the difference, however, is not 
inconsiderable. Mimes were imported from Sicily and Magna 
Grascia ; they were invariably and entirely Latin : they were 
performed by professed actors, and not by the Eoman gentry ; 
aud their whole spirit was so essentially different from that of the 
Atellanes, that Cicero almost contrasts the two species of enter- 
tainment ; l for, in writing to Papirias Paetus, he complains that 
his correspondent had joked with him rather with the coarseness 
of the Mime, than the more delicate raillery of the Atellane : — 
" Nunc venio ad jocationes tuas, quum tu, secundum (Enomaiim Attii, 
no?i, ut olim solebat, Atellanum, sed, ut nunc jit, Mimum introdiixidi."' 7. 
True, indeed, it is, that the Atellane, in the period which we are 
treating, had risen from its original foreign and shapeless state 
into the rank of Latin literature in the more polished composi- 
tions of Pomponius and Novius ; to the former of whom Eome 
was indebted for sixty of these plays, and to the latter for 
forty. 3 But the very reason assigned by Valerius Maximus for 

1 ix. Ep. ad Fam. 16. 

2 Munk gives a different turn to this passage (de Fab. A tell. 125) : Matthiae 
(Epist. Selectt.) interprets with us. But both agree with us in allowing that it 
draws a sharp distinction between the Atellane and the Mime. 

3 The fragments of Pomponius and Novius, as well as those of Meinmius, 
(" qui post Novium et Pomponium diu jacentem artem Atellaniam suscitavit," 
Macrob. Sat. i. 10), have been laboriously collected by Munk ; but there is 
nothing in them of sufficient extent to afford a specimen of these authors. 
Velleius (ii. 9) calls Pomponius " sensibus celebrem, verbis rudem, novltate a se 



112 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Causes of the rank and privilege of actors in the Atellane, which date from 
degeneracy. ^ ts first existence, 1 is the grave character of its humour; 2 while, 
from all that can be collected from ancient authors, ribaldry and 
obscenity were the features of the Mime. Even Martial, who 
in these can scarcely be surpassed, avows that the Mimes were 
not less licentious than his own epigrams. 3 And Ovid seems to 
consider them the very climax of licentiousness, when, apologising 
to Augustus for the freedom of his own writings, he contrasts it 
with the gross and undisguised impurities of the Mimes : 4 

Quid si scripsissem Mimos obsccena jocantes ? 

Qui vetiti semper crimen amoris babent ; 
In quibus assidue cultus procedit adulter, 

Verbaque dat stulto callida nupta viro. 

***** 

Scribere si fas est imitantes turpia Mimos, 
Materia minor est debita poena mese. 5 

From these verses it appears that not only the character, but 
the plot of the Mime (which was extremely jejune) was tolerably 
constant. The same observation has been already made on the 
Eoman regular Comedy : but it may be here extended ; for there 
seem to have been some characters and situations which entered 
into the essence of the Mime, as is the case with our modern 
Harlequinades, and was with the ancient Atellane. The principal 
of these was Sannio, the prototype, most probably, of the Italian 
Zanni ; for the Pannicidus, a character which Mr. Dunlop mentions 
as a constant ingredient of the Mime, " who appeared in a party- 
coloured dress, with his head shaved, feigning stupidity or folly, 
and allowing blows to be inflicted on himself without cause or 
moderation," seems only to be a creation of that ingenious author. 6 
It appears that there was a mimetic actor thus called in the time 
of Domitian, 7 who represented the slave of another actor, Latinus, 
in which character he was not treated in the gentlest conceivable 
manner; but there seems to be no reason for considering Panni- 
culus other than his actual name, since we know that Latinus was a 
real character. 8 In all the Mimes there was a principal performer, 

inventi operis commendabilem." The " novelty " and " invention," most probably, 
consisted in the regular and literary form which Pomponius had bestowed on what 
was before wholly barbarous, and mainly, if not entirely, extemporaneous. 

1 ii. 4. 4. 

2 Klenze (Zur Geschichte der Altitalischen Volkstamme) will not believe 
Valerius, and adduces many testimonies to the impurity of the Atellanes ; but 
these all refer to much later periods than that of which Valerius is speaking. At 
the same time the gravity of the early Atellanes was only comparative. 

3 iii. Ep. 78. 4 ii. Trist. 497. 

5 Ovid. ii. Trist. 575. See Lactant. vi. 20, 30. 

6 Hist, of Rom. Lit. vol. i. 7 Mart. i. 5 ; ii. 72 ; v. 61. 
8 Suet. Domit. xv. et Juv. Sat. i. 36 ; vi. 44. 



HORACE. — LABERIUS. 113 

to whom the rest acted as foils, and who was generally, as was 
before observed, the author of the piece. His part was regularly 
composed, but the others assisted him by extemporaneous raillery 
and gesticulation : and, whenever these failed, the actor left the 
stage precipitately, and the curtain was drawn. x The Planipes 
(Mimus), Planipedaria, or Kiciniata (Fabula), which some authors 
distinguish from the Mime, in reality only differs from it as the 
Togata from the Palliata ; these were names given to Mimes on 
Eoman subjects ; the derivation being from the unbuskined foot, 
or simple square garment (ricinium) of the actors. Mimes were 
so popular during the early years of the empire, that they had 
nearly driven the Atellanes from the stage : whence, perhaps, the 
confusion between these kinds of composition. 

C. Decimus Laberius, a Eoman knight, attached to the old Labenus. 
republican government, had, as we have already had occasion to 
observe, employed his leisure in the occasional composition of these 
rude dramatic sketches. 2 Julius Caesar, whose object it was to 
crush the spirit of the Roman aristocracy, and especially of those 
among them whose regrets and affections lingered with former 
liberty and independence, offered him 500,000 sesterces to perform 
his own Mimes. He complied ; apparently, less on account of the 
inducement held out to him than through fear of offending the 
dictator. When, however, he had consented to appear on the 
stage, the infamy of his concession came on his mind in all its 
deformity, and he expressed the bitterness of wounded honour in 
an indignant prologue, preserved by Macrobius, 3 to whom we are 
indebted for this part of our history, in which he contrasted his 

1 Cic. Orat. pro Coal., et ibi Variorum Comm. 2 Macr. Sat. ii. 7. 

3 Ubi supra. We append this piece, with a translation. 

Necessitas, cujus cursus transversi impetum 
Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, 
Quo me detrusit psene extremis sensibus ? 
Quern nulla ambitio, nulla umquam iargitio, 
Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas 
Movere potuit in juventa de statu ; 
Ecce in senecta ut facile labefecit loco 
Viri excellentis mente clemente edita 
Submissa placide blandiloquens oratio ! 
Etenim ipsi Di negare cui nihil potuerunt 
Hominem me denegare quis posset pati ? 
Ergo, bis tricenis annis actis sine nota, 
Eques Romanus Lare egressus meo, 1 
Domum revertar mimus. Nimirum hoc die 
Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit. 

Fortuna, immoderata in bono rcque atque in rnalo ! 
Si tibi erat libitum litterarum laudibus 



[R. L,l 



Perhaps, Laribus egressus meis. 



114 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Laberius. former life witli the situation in which he was placed by the 
dictator's authoritative request, whose persuasive eloquence he 
panegyrized in a vein of the richest irony. Not content with this, 
he represented, in the course of the piece, a slave flying from the 
whip, and exclaiming : 

Porro, Quirites, Libertatem perdimus ! 

And afterwards added 

Necesse est multos timeat quern multi tiraent, 

on which the eyes of the whole assembly were immediately turned 
on Caesar. The fragments which remain of the Mimes of Laberius 
are neither numerous nor copious enough to afford us the 

Floris cacumen nostra famse frangere, 
Cur, quiim vigebam membris praviridantibus, 
Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro, 
Non me flexibilem concurvasti ut carperes ? 
Nunc me quo dejicis ? quid ad scenam affero? 
Decorem forma;, an dignitatem corporis, 
Animi virtu tern, an vocis jucundae sonum ? 
Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat, 
Ita me Vetustas amplexu annorum enecat : 
Sepulchri similis nihil nisi nomen retineo. 

Whither hath Fate, whose rushing sidelong sweep 

Many have sought to shun, but few avail'd, 

Driv'n me, in these my latest hours of life ? 

Whom no ambition, no corruption ever, 

No fear, no violence, no influence, 

Could move in youth from off my stedfast ground, — 

How easily in age have I been cast 

Down from that eminence by the honey'd speech, 

The gentle soft entreaty, speaking forth 

The kindly mind of an illustrious man ! 

Who would endure that I, poor mortal wretch, 

Should dare refuse him whom the gods themselves 

Presumed not to deny whate'er he claimM ? 

Thus after three-score years of stainless life, 

I issue from my doors a Roman knight, 

To enter them a mime ! marry, this day, 

I've liv'd a day too long. O Fortune, Fortune ! 

Inordinate alike in good and ill ! 

If 'twas thy pleasure to employ my pen 

Against my fame, why, when the sap flow'd green 

Along my limbs, and I could well have pleas'd 

The people, and this most illustrious man, 

Didst thou not bend me supple to thy purpose ? 

Now, whither dost thou hurl me ? What can I 

Bring to the stage ? fair feature ? stately form ? 

Vigour of intellect ? melodious tone ? — 

As crawling ivy saps the strength of trees, 

So Age consumes me in the embrace of years ; 

And, tomb-like, I have nothing but a name. 



HORACE. LABERIUS A2sD PUBLIUS. 115 

means of examining his merits. Aulus Gellius reproaches him Laberius. 
with a stiff and pedantic phraseology : l the fastidiousness, however, 
of the Augustan age rejected many words and phrases which, in 
reality, were more faithfully conceived in the genius of Greek 
composition than the phraseology sanctioned by the authorities of 
that philhellenic period. Horace mentions the keenness of his 
humour together with that of Lucilius : 2 

Nempe incomposito dixipede currere versus 

Luciii. Quis tarn Lucili fautor inepte est 

Ut non hoc fateatur ? At idem, quod sale multo 

Uibern defricuit, charta laudatur eadem. 

Nee tamen hoc tribuens, dederim quoque caetera : nam sic 

Et Laberi Miruos, ut pulchra poernata, uiirer, 

Nothing can be more incorrect than to distort this passage into a 
censure of Laberius ; it is indeed a high compliment to his comic 
and satirical powers, and only distinguishes his Mimes from exact 
and elegant poems, which they did not profess to be; whereas 
Lucilius, of whom the poet is writing, assumed higher ground, and 
therefore justified higher expectations. The author of the Prologue 
in Macrobius was evidently capable of mimetic excellence. 

Laberius was reserved for further mortification. Publius, a Contest of 
Syrian freedman, who had gained a considerable celebrity by ^h Publius 
acting Mimes through the towns of Italy, came to Rome, and syrus. 
challenged all the professors of the art, whom he severally conquered : 
among these was Laberius. 3 In the decision, which rested with 
Julius Caesar, there can be little doubt that the dictator was 
actuated in some measure by revenge. He turned with a smile 
to Laberius, and said : 

Favente tibi me victus es, Laberi, a Syro : 

and gave Publius the palm, and Laberius a ring of gold, and 
500 sesterces. Publius then insulted Laberius with another verse : 

Quicum contendisti scriptor, hunc spectator subleva. 

Laberius sought his place among the knights, but was refused. As 
he passed Cicero, the orator said, " I would give you a seat, if 
I were not crowded;" alluding to the number of new senators 
created by Caesar. Laberius replied, " I wonder you are crowded, 
accustomed as you are to occupy two : " — a taunt levelled at Cicero's 
alleged instability. 4 

All that now remain of the works of Publius are between eight works of 
and nine hundred isolated verses, containing apophthegms of great Publius - 
beauty, expressed with peculiar felicity, generally each in a 

1 Nock Att. xyL 7. 2 1 Sat. x. init. 

3 Aul. Gell., Noct. Att. xvii. 14. 4 Macr. Sat. II. iii., VII. in. 

12 



116 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Pubiius. single line. The judgment which Seneca passes on them, ! that 
they are better suited to tragedy than low farce, will be readily 
acquiesced in by all readers: nor is it easy to understand how 
sentiments so noble, so true, and so philosophical, could have 
amalgamated with the gross materials of the Mime. The truth 
appears to be that tragic genius, discouraged in its proper field, 
invaded a province, in which, although adequate development was 
impossible, nevertheless applause was certain. 2 
Matius. Contemporary with Laberius and Pubiius was Cneius Matius, 

who wrote Mimiambics, which differed from the Mimes of the two 
former authors only by being written in scazontics. He also 
translated the Iliad into hexameters. 3 After this time the Mime 

fell to its former level, and, 
in the time of Augustus, 
poets had taken an almost 
entire leave of the Eoman 
stage. The pieces of the old 
dramatists, however, were 
still performed, as those of 
Shakspeare are among us ; 
the emperor himself loved to 
exhibit them in the public 
games ; 4 and it was con- 
sidered the height of critical 
ignorance to impugn the 
excellence of any of them ; 
an attachment to antiquity 
which Horace justly ridi- 
cules. 5 But if the dramatic 
Muses were treated with 
neglect, no attentions were 
withheld from their sisters. 
The literary fermentation, ill 
suppressed by the unfavour- 
able position of politics, had 
only waited the sanction and 
encouragement of power to 
burst forth : and from those parts of the writings of Horace which 
are now under our more immediate attention, we may conclude that 

1 Ep. viii. ; De Tranq. Anim. xi. 

2 See Seneca, Ep. cviii. The extant verses of Pubiius Syrus have been edited 
by Bentley, together with Terence : and a very copious and elegant edition was 
published at Leyden in 1708, entitled, L. Anncei Senecce et P. Syri Mimi, 
forsan etiam aliorum, Singulares Sententice : Studio et Opera Jani Gi-uteri. 

3 Terent. Maur. The translator of the Iliad is, however, distinguished from 
the mimianibist by Bernhardy. Grundriss der Rom. Lit. 78. 

4 Suet., Augustus, 89. 5 Ep. ad Aug. 




Remains of the ITlaminian Circus. 



HORACE. LITERARY EXCITEMENT. 117 

the situation of Augustus and Maecenas was in no respect preferable General 
to that state of literary persecution which Pope paints with such Augustan 
pathetic humour in the Prologue to the Satires. All was one amabilis Poetry. 
insania. l Augustus himself did not escape the infection. 2 He 
wrote a poem called Sicilia in hexameters, a tragedy intituled 
Achilles, another called Ajax, which he destroyed unfinished, some 
Fescennine verses on Pollio, and a book of epigrams. He was well 
content, however, to have purchased, at the cost of literary impor- 
tunities, exemption from troubles of a graver character, and to 
have shifted the battle-ground from Philippi to Parnassus : and 
he was pleased to find that, by his encouragement of poetry, he 
had not only diverted the public mind from political interests and 
recollections, achieved popularity, and even obtained gratitude; 
but that he had also excited a spirit favourable to the continuance 
of all these things. A bloodless civil war had replaced the struggles 
of political factions ; the followers of antiquity talked not of Brutus 
and Gracchus, but of Ennius and Lucilius ; while the partisans of 
the modern school spoke less of Julius and Augustus than of Horace 
and Virgil. The rude, but strong and heart-inspiring tones of the 
old minstrels were contrasted with the less nervous but more tasteful 
and polished strains of later artists, favourably or otherwise, as 
the fancy of readers led them. The public feeling found exercise in 
an institution, which, though it had existed before, was rendered 
almost necessary by the temper of the Augustan times, and was 
mainly promoted by Asinius Pollio. This was the meeting of a 
sort of literary clubs, not unlike Will's Coifee-house in the seven- 
teenth century, for the purpose of recitation ; and in this way 
authors, poets most especially, frequently gave their works to the 
public. In these the modern party achieved a signal triumph. 
Such being the character of the time, it is not matter of surprise 
that a great many names of poets should have reached us of whom 
we know little more, and of whom the knowledge would, probably, 
be of little value. A select catalogue, in which Ovid wished 

1 Mutavit menteru populus levis, et calet uno 
Scribendi studio : puerique, patresque severi 
Fronde comas vincti ccenant, et carmina dictant. 
* * * * * 

Scribimus indocti doctique poernata passim. 

Hor. Fp. ad Aug. 107. 
Ludere qui nescit campestribus abstinet arruis, 
Indoctusque pilse discive trochive quiescit, 
Ne spissae risum tollant impune coronae : 
Qui nescit, versus tamen audet fingere ! — Quidni ? 
Liber et ingenuus, prsesertim census equestrem 
Summam nummorum, vitioque remotus ab omni. 

Hor. Art. Poet. 379. 
2 Suet., Aug. lxxxv. Suidas, voc. AvyovaTos. Macr., Sat. xi. 4. Plin., 
xxxiv. 10. 



Ovid's 
"""Catalogue 
of Poets. 



Domitius 
Marsus. 



Eabirius. 



118 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Carus. 



Severus. 



Sabinus. 



Yarro. 



Tuticanus 



posterity to place himself, forms the substance of the poet's last 
Pontic elegy : to many of the names which compose it we have 
before adverted, and we shall here give a brief notice of such 
among the rest as appear best to deserve it. 

Domitius Marsus was an epigrammatist, and also author of a 
poem called Amazonis, on the exploits of the Amazons. His 
epigram on the death of Tibullus we have already quoted. It 
appears to be a portion of an elegy. Vide Broukhuvs, ad locum. 
He is frequently commended by Martial. l Eabirius had celebrated 
the civil wars of Augustus and Antony ; 2 if the common reading 
be genuine, he has been compared by Yelleius Paterculus to Virgil. 3 
A portion of his work I)e hello Actiaco has been thought to 
have been discovered in an Herculanean MS. Some, however, 
suppose this poem to be part of Yarius's panegyric on Augustus. 
Carus was a personal friend of Ovid, to whom the poet wrote 
the XlVth of his IVth Book of Pontic Epistles, from w r hich it 
appears that he was tutor to the sons of Germanicus. Cornelius 
Severus was a poet of considerable celebrity. He wrote a poem 
on the w-ars in Sicily, as appears from Qiiinctilian ; and Ovid 
ascribes to him tragedies. A spirited fragment of this poet on 
the death of Cicero is cited by M. Seneca, which that writer 
pronounces inferior to none of the numerous compositions to which 
that occasion gave birth. 4 Quinctilian considers him a better 
versifier than poet ; 5 but would have placed him second to Virgil 
or Ovid, had he succeeded as well in the whole of his Sicilian war, 
as he had done in the 1st Book. 6 His work was interrupted by 
death. The same critic speaks very highly of his juvenile poems. 
He is often cited by the grammarians for instances of enallage of 
gender. Sabinus wrote replies to several of Ovid's Epistles. 
They are enumerated, ii. Amor., xviii. Three epistles, purporting to 
belong to this writer, are found in the editio princeps of Ovid's 
Heroides ; but as they are not to be found now in any MS., 
scholars have ascribed them to Angelo Sabino, a scholar of the fifteenth 
century. Jahn, however, considers them genuine. The "velivoli 
maris vates " is generally supposed to be Terentius Yarro of Atax, 
already mentioned. The poet " qui Mseoniam Phseacida vertit " is 
Tuticanus, to whom the XIHth and XIYth Elegies of the IYth 
Book of the Pontics are addressed. He was the early and intimate 
friend of Ovid, and they had mutually corrected each other's 



viii. 56. 



xiv. 157. 

3 ii. 36. 

5 x. 1. 

The context places Ovid imme- 
diately before, and therefore it might be thought that second to Ovid was intended. 
But the Heroic Epistles are the work named, which could not in any way be 
compared with an epic poem. It is not impossible that second to Virgil (though 
as a versifier only) may be meant. 



1 ii. 71. 77. v. 5. vii. 99. 

2 Sen. de Ben., vi. 3. 
4 Sen., Suas. vii. 
6 " Vindicaret sibi jure secundum locum. 



HORACE. — AUGUSTAN POETS. GEATIUS. — MANILIUS. 119 

writings. He translated tlie Yllth Book of the Odyssey into Latin. Ovid's 
Melissus, as we learn from Suetonius, 1 was the author of a new kind o*p^fJ e 
of the Comoedia togata, called " trabeata:" in which characters appear Melissus. 
to have been introduced of a higher class than those in the ordinary 
comedy. In his sixtieth year he began to write books of Joci, 
or Ineptia, which he composed to the amount of upwards of one 
hundred and fifty. He was a freedman of Msecenas, and was 
appointed by Augustus keeper of one of the public libraries. 
Tityrus, of course, is Virgil. 

Such are nearly all the particulars now extant concerning these 
Augustan authors. One of the number, Gratius, is mentioned by no Gratras 
other ancient writer, and appears to have been almost unknown, since allbCUS * 
Oppian and ISTemesian, who afterwards wrote on the same subject, 
speak each of himself as the first bard of hunting. A manuscript 
of the Cynegeticon of this poet was found by Sannazaro in France, 
and by him was brought to Naples, and there shown to several 
eminent literary characters. The poem was first printed at Venice, 
in 1534. In the total absence of testimony concerning this writer, 
it would be idle to descant on his history or family, which, how- 
ever, has been done. The name Faliscus was given him by Caspar 
Barthius " e codice suo, quern tamen nemo alius vidit," as Wernsdorf 
facetiously observes ; but the line 

At contra nostris imbellia lina faliscis 2 

is commonly thought decisive evidence of his country. 

Gratius is not the only Augustan poet who has been fated to be 
the transmitter of his own fame. Of Manilius, the author of the Manffius. 
Astronomica, we have no contemporary testimony s his very name 
is uncertain ; Marcus or Caius, Manilius, Manlius, or Mallius ; 
even Quinctilian is silent concerning him : but Pliny is supposed 
to allude to him 3 when he mentions with commendation a certain 
astronomer of this name, who placed a golden rod on the obelisk of 
Augustus in the Campus Martins, to distinguish the divisions of 
time by its shadow. But the name is not found in the best copies 
of this writer. There are two other passages of Pliny, which have 
been referred to Manilius. By some he is thought to have been 
the " noble senator " who maintained that the life of the Phoenix 
coincided with the cycle of "the great year;" 4 while others dis- 
cover him in the Manilius Antiochus, who came as a slave to Rome 
with Publius Syrus and Staberius Eros, and whom the naturalist 
designates by the ambitious appellation, " astrologise conditor." 5 
It is probable that most of the copies of the Astronomicon perished 
when Augustus destroyed all the books of divination, 6 except 
the Sibylline, amounting to upwards of two thousand volumes : 

1 De 111. Gram. xxi. 2 Cyneget. 40. s Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 10. 

4 Nat. Hist. x. 2. 5 lb. xxxv. 58. 6 Suet., Aug. xxxi. 






120 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POET11Y. 



and to this circumstance is probably to be ascribed the silence of 

antiquity concerning this author. 
Similar was the fate of Phsedrus, 
who is mentioned by Avienus, or, 
more properly, Avianus, a fabulist 
of whom we shall speak presently ; 
and by him only, unless we may 
except Martial, who is supposed by 
some to have alluded to him in 
the XXth Epigram of his Illrd 
Book. Seneca was certainly igno- 
rant of his writings, for he calls 
the JEaopai \6yoi " intentatum 
Romanis ingeniis opus." l We men- 
tion Phsedrus here, although his 
fables were not published until after 
the accession of Tiberius, for the 
reason assigned by Spence in his 
Polymetis? " that he flourished and 
formed his style under Augustus, 
and his book deserves on all ac- 
counts to be reckoned among the 
works of the Augustan Age." Of 
Phsedrus we know nothing beyond 
what he has himself imparted. He 
informs us that he was a Thracian, 
and the title of his book designates 
him " Augusti libertus." He appears to have been persecuted by 
Sejanus, but for what reason, and in what precise way, is not dis- 
coverable. But the nature of his writings, strictly as he disclaimed 
all personal allusion, 3 was such as to excite suspicion in profligate, 
arbitrary, and captious times. He has the merit of being the first 
to introduce the apologue systematically into Roman literature : 
and, although iEsop and Greek models claim most of the value of 
his matter, his Roman elegance and grace are his own. In the year 
1809, Cassitti published at Naples a collection of thirty-two fables, 
which he ascribed to Phsedrus, but which, in the MS. of Niccolo 
Perotti, Bishop of Manfredonia in the fifteenth century, whence he 
edited them, are called Epitome fahularim JEsopi, Avieni, etPhcedri. 
In Perotti's prologue, Ad PyrrJmm Nepotem, too, we are informed, 




The Obelisk of Augustus. 



Non sunt hi mei, quos putas, versiculi, 
Sed iEsopi sunt, Avieni, et Phaedri, 



Honori et meritis dicavi illos tuis, 
interponens meos. 



1 De Cons, ad Polyb. c. xxvii. 



Dial. iii. 



Prolog, ad Lib. iii. 



HORACE. PH^IDRUS. 



121 



Angelo Mai, however, found the same thirty-two fables in a MS. 
in the Vatican, and edited them as wholly the work of Phsedrus, in 
1832. The genuineness of these pieces is much debated. Perotti, 
indeed, seems to have had small share in the composition. Many 
of them had been translated into German by the Minnesanger, 
and adopted by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum. 1 The style 
shows great affinity with that of the acknowledged writings of 
Phsedrus. 

It is curious to observe how the Augustan poets, who speak of 
themselves and their celebrity in what they conceived to be the most 
unlimited expressions, have yet in many instances underrated the 
extent and duration of their fame. The priest and the vestal no 
longer ascend the Capitol : 2 that Capitol is no longer the seat of 
the family of iEueas : 3 but the works of Horace and Virgil are 
still the admiration of the world, and their perpetuity appears 
secure. Thus, while Ovid seems to have been content to take his 
chance with posterity as a single star in a great constellation, he 
has, in effect, by his surpassing lustre, cast into obscurity all the 
other luminaries, with the sole exception of his Tityrus. Although 
the chief celebrity of Ovid, and those circumstances which prin- Ovid, 
cipally connect his biography with literary history, did not arise 
until after the death of Horace, we shall but slightly transgress our 
chronology if we mention them here. 

Publius Ovidius Naso was born of an ancient and noble family His birth, 
at Sulmo, 4 now Solmona, a town of the Pelignian territory, prSskm. 




Ovid. 



March 20, in the seven hundred and eleventh year of Borne. He 
was first educated under Plotius Grippus, 5 and afterwards studied 



1 Baehr, Gesch. der Rom. Lit. §. 177. 2 Hor. 3 Od. xxx. 

3 Virg., JEu. ix. 447. 

4 Very full particulars of the life of Ovid, as in the case of Horace, may be 
collected from the Poet's own writings. In the Xth elegy of the IVth Book 
of his Tristia he has written a professed sketch of his life, from which, where it 
is not otherwise specified, this account is taken. 

5 Vit. in Cod. Pomponii Lseti, itemque in Cod. Farnesiano. 



122 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Poetic 
friends. 



Ovid. oratory under Marcellus 1 Fuscus and Porcius Latro. He was designed 

by his father, a llornan knight, for the bar : and, by the talents which 
he possessed, and the proficiency which he made in the preliminary 
studies, he seems not to have been ill qualified for the profession. 

Decicamations.The elder Seneca speaks highly of his declamations, 2 and has pre- 
served an extract from one of them, observing " Oratio ejus jam turn 
nihil aliud poterat videri quam solutum carmen." This prepon- 
derating inclination to poetical pursuits he struggled, at the instance 
of his father, to repress : but the lines in which he informs us that 
he was worsted in this conflict are sufficient in themselves to show 
what must have been the event of a contest between Ovid and the 
Muses .- 

Sponte sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos, 
Et quod tentabam scribere, versus erat. 

Accordingly, when he found that neither his bodily constitution nor 
his mental inclination directed him to the profession for which he 
was at first intended, he deserted it altogether, and devoted himself 
to the study of poetry and the society of poets. He mentions at 
this time among the number of his intimates, Macer, Propertius, 
Ponticus, Bassus the iambographer, and, lastly, Horace himself. 
Of these he appears to have been most familiar with Propertius, 
who, like himself, had relinquished forensic for poetical pursuits, 
and who occasionally read to him his elegies, which naturally 
excited the emulation of a breast devoted to poetry and love. 
Ovid, like Propertius, had attempted epic poetry : 3 but the failure 
of his frieud in this species of writing, and his brilliant success in 
elegy, appear to have determined his hesitating muse. A critical 
reader of the Amores will easily perceive the influence which the 
spirit of Propertius exercised in those compositions. They contain 
less of Greek sentiment and expression than the poems of Proper- 
tius, who was a professed imitator of Callimachus, Philetas, and 
Mimnerrnus ; indeed it is a principal beauty of Ovid's versification 
that he has moulded it with a peculiar regard to the natural melody 
of his native language : but, with more of originality, they bear a 
greater resemblance to the elegies of Propertius than to those of 
any other extant writer. In particular, he seems to have been in- 
debted to this poet for the idea of his Heroic Epistles, as will appear 
from a perusal of Propertius's Epistle of Aretlmsa to Lycotas} 

When Ovid, agreeably to the custom of the time, first publicly 
recited the Amoves, he was, according to his own account, very 
young : 

Carmina quum primutn populo juvenilia legi, 
Barba resecta mihi bisve semelve fuit. 



Amores. 



1 Arellius, apud Senecam. 2 Contr. x. 

3 1 Am. i. Lib. ii. Eleg. i. ; Prop. 3 Eleg. iii. et alius. 4 Prop. 4 Eleg. iii. 



ovid. 123 

They originally occupied five books ; but his maturer judgment Ovid. 

luced these to three. Several elegies were afterwards added, as 
that on the death of Tibullus, and others, where circumstances are 
mentioned which prove them to nave been composed at a later 
period. Who their heroine, Corinna, was, has never, as yet, been 
discovered ; we shall, however, presently have to notice some false 
opinions on this subject. 

The life of Ovid, like that of most literary characters, exhibits 
few prominent incidents. Prom himself we learn that he was 
thrice married. His first marriage took place when he was almost 
a boy, and was soon dissolved as a low and unworthy connexion. 
His second wife was also divorced, although he makes no charge 
against her ; but his third remained with him until his banishment, 
in which she was prevented by Augustus from bearing him com- 
pany. He studied at Athens, as was customary with the youth 
of his time. He bore the judicial offices of triumvir, centumvir, 
and decemvir. 1 His tragedies, which have been already alluded to, 
his second edition of the Amoves, and his Heroic Epistles had seen Heroic 
the light, when in his forty-first year he published his Art of Love. 2 ^To/Love. 
This poem was the ostensible pretext of his banishment ten years 
after : had that event taken place at the first publication of the 
work, it would have been little extraordinary, as the tendency of the 
poem went directly to subvert all those salutary measures for the 
egulation of public morals which Augustus was taking singular 
pains to enforce : but Ovid, although, as a Eoman knight, he was 
subject to a moral examination on the part of Augustus, was never 
molested on the ground of the licentiousness of his writings, 
until an event occurred, which is hidden in impenetrable mystery, 
and the investigation of which has afforded amusement for the 
leisure of the learned. On this account, actually, but professedly Banished to 
on the ground of the licentious character of his Art of Love, the Tomi - 
Emperor banished him to Tomi, a town on the north of the Euxine. 
It will be much easier to show what his offence was not than what 
it was. The earlier commentators on Ovid, and some of the more 
recent, triumphantly appeal to Sidonius Apollinaris in proof that 
the cause of Ovid's banishment to Tomos was an intrigue with 
Julia, the daughter of Augustus : 3 the verses are these : 

Et te, carmina per libidinosa 
Notum, Naso tener, Tomosque missum. 
Quondam Caesarese nimis puellse 
Falso nomine subditum Corinnse. 

These lines can, at best, prove no more than that Ovid owed his 
exile to his licentious verses : and, were it otherwise, the words 
11 Csesarea puella" by no means distinctly indicate the daughter of 

1 Fast. iv. 383. 2 Masson, Tit. Ov. 3 Sid. Apoll., xxiii. 157. 



Ovid. 



124 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

Caesar : they may signify a female menial. But that the conjecture 
founded on these verses is incorrect, is evident, were there no 
other consideration, from the manner in which Ovid himself per- 
petually speaks of the fatal circumstance, which he always represents 
as something unintentional and involuntary. 1 He was accidentally 
witness of some transaction which Augustus wished to be concealed. 
This is by some supposed to have been a criminal intimacy between 
Augustus and his daughter Julia ; which cannot be true, as Julia 
had been banished from Eome several years before. Some make 
the granddaughter, Julia, the object of the illicit passion of 
Augustus : and there are those who conjecture that Ovid had 
witnessed some of her debaucheries with other gallants ; and this 
opinion derives countenance from the fact that she was banished 
from Eome in the same year with the poet. There are, however, 
strong reasons against this belief, which the reader will find in the 
elaborate article " Ovide" in Bayle's Dictionary. A modern writer 
supposes that Ovid had seen and revealed some part of the 
Eleusinian mysteries. It is singular that the transaction should 
be involved in so much obscurity, as the cause of Ovid's exile was 
no secret at the time. 2 After a night of inexpressible distress, which 
the poet could never recal without tears, a night spent in taking 
leave of his wife, and of two friends who remained with him to the 
last (his daughter was in Africa), by early morning he was afloat 
on a tempestuous sea, the gloomy image of his future life on the 
Getic coast. 3 

In this banishment from the scene of all his early pursuits and 
affections he existed, as we learn from his Tristia and Pontic 
elegies, in a state of the greatest misery, with the Muse as his only 
friend : though even with her in less, familiar intercourse than 
before. 4 Although he could not resign the study of poetry, he was 
dissatisfied with his productions, and, at his departure, committed 
the Metamorphoses to the flames. 5 The work, although it had not 
received its last polish, was complete in its plan ; and had already 
passed into the hands of friends, whom he afterwards entreated to 
preserve it. His prosecution of the Fasti, six books of which only 
have reached us, was also interrupted by this misfortune. Masson 
contends from this verse of Ovid that only six were ever written : 

Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos : 

but his reasoning is at variance with all grammatical construction, 

and we are compelled to conclude that time has deprived us of six 

other works books of the Fasti. Beside these works, Ovid composed The 

of ovid. Remedy of Love, a Satire on Ibis, and Halieutica, which have 

1 2 Trist. 103. 3 Eleg. v. et passim. 2 4 Trist. x. 99. 

3 1 Trist. iii. 4 4 Pont. ii. h 1 Trist, vi. 



Fasti. 



ovid. 125 

reached us ; and Epigrams, a Latin and a Getic poem on the triumphs Ovid. 
of Cassar, a satire " in malos poetas," and Phenomena, which are 
lost. The Nux, the Medicamina faciei, and the Panegyricus ad 
Pisonem? are at best doubtful. The other poems attributed to 
Ovid are manifestly spurious. These are Consolatio ad .Liviam 
Augudam; Elegia de Philomela; He Pulice, Elegia; Somnium ; 
metrical arguments of the books of the iEneid ; De Vetidd, libri iii. ; 
Catalecta ; Priapeia ; and the following, lately discovered in a MS. 
at Bern : Be Pediculo ; Be Annulo ; Be Medicamine aurium. 

Ovid died of a broken heart after a seven years' banishment, and 0vid ' s death - 
after having vainly employed the interest of his friends with Tiberius 
to be recalled. He was, however, treated by the natives with every 
attention, and received from them several immunities. 2 

If Ovid, as a man, was unfortunate, as a poet he cannot be alto- 
gether so regarded. He was born at the happiest of times for the 
exhibition of his chief excellence, skill in the mechanical structure 
of his language. Even in the Julian age he would scarcely have 
developed this, nor, if he had, would it have been duly appreciated : 
and immediately after his decease a new school had arisen. Of the 
mutual adaptation of his time and his genius he was fully sensible : 3 
and he made good use of his opportunities. When we speak, how- Character of 
ever, of Ovid's elegance as his principal distinction, it is only hxspoetry " 
because his success in this respect is so transcendent. He was, 
in imaginative power, perhaps, superior to all other Latin poets ; 
and Milton hesitates not to affirm that, but for the influence of 

1 This poem has been attributed to Virgil, Lucan, Statius, &c. The authorship 
is utterly uncertain. Ovid undoubtedly wrote a poem De medicaminibus (A. A. iii. 
205.) and the internal evidence of that "which we possess is in his favour. 

2 For a more minute discussion of the history of this poet than can be here 
given, see the article in Bayle, above alluded to, and Masson's copious Life 
of Ovid, published in Burmann's edition ; and also in a small volume with his 
Lives of Horace and the younger Pliny. 

3 Prisca juvent alios; ego me nunc denique natum 

Gratulor. Hsec setas moribus apta meis ; 
Non quia nunc terrse lentum subducitur aurum, 

Lectaque diverso littore concha venit : 
Nee quia decrescunt effosso marmore montes : 

Nee quia cserulese mole fugantur aquae : 
Sed quia cultus adest, nee nostros mansit in annos 

Rusticitas priscis ille superstes avis. — A. A. iii. 121. 

These times for me ! let others love the old : 

1 bless my lot, these suit my genius well : 
Not that they raise from earth the ductile gold, 

Or bring from stranger shores the sumptuous shell ; 
Not that Art tames the marble mountains' pride, 

And the dark wave before the mole retires ; 
But that fair Culture now 7 hath cast aside 

The rustic rudeness of our pristine sires. 



. 



126 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Ovid. 

Meta- 
morphoses. 



Ilero'ides. 



Horace. 



Devotes 
himself to 
philosophy. 



misfortune on his genius, he would have surpassed Virgil in epic 
achievement. The Metamorphoses, though in part indebted to 
Greek originals for form and material, are yet a marvellous work of 
fancy. The stories of Phaeton, of Ceyx and Alcyone, of Jason 
and Medea, are exuberant with creative force : and the subtle thread 
which connects the diverse materials in one harmonious and beautiful 
whole is not less admirable than the structure itself. The Hero'ides 
manifest a deep knowledge of human nature, especially female 
while the turns and expressions are everywhere at once natural and 
exact ; 

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest. 

Of all classical writers, Ovid is nearest to the romantic school, of 
which he may be called a distant ancestor. Chaucer, Ariosto, and 
Spenser, owe him obligations ; and we are casually reminded of him 
even by Pouque. 

Ovid was the only writer of eminence who prolonged the golden 
age of Latin poetry beyond the time of Horace : and, were it not 
that other causes may be assigned, the inferiority of his later poems 
might seem to have been referable to that sudden languor of the 
Latin Muse, which the deaths of Horace and Maecenas, and the 

infirmities and subsequent 



decease of her patron Au- 
gustus produced, and from 
which she never recovered. 
The last piece which Horace 
ever wrote was, most pro- 
bably, the Ilnd Epistle of his 
Ilnd Book, which he ad- 
dressed to Julius Plorus, a 
satiric poet of high excel- 
lence, 1 and which, in that 
case, could not have been 
written long before his 
death. In it he professes his 
determination to relinquish 
the pursuits of poetry for 

Mausoleum of Augustus. ^ Q ^ of mQJ ^ philosophVj 

especially the suitable contemplation of his advancing end. And, 
perhaps, never was death encountered with more genuine philosophy 
(in the real sense of the word), than by Horace. He employed his 
latter days, exclusively, in a study to which he had devoted a con- 
siderable portion of his earlier life, the investigation of moral good, 
and the nature of happiness ; an inquiry which he undertook for 
the advantages of its results, and not from any motives of ambition 




1 Acro v in loc. cit. Cf. etiam Hor., i. Ep. 



HORACE. 127 

or ostentation ; and which he therefore conducted on the principles Horace. 
of right reason and regulated sentiment, without reference to the 
subtleties and mechanism of any of the philosophical systems then 
in vogue. He employed what light had been bestowed on him 
faithfully : and by that blessing, which, we now learn from the 
highest authority, is always given to the ingenuous and serious 
inquirer after truth, he made a proficiency in the knowledge of the 
situation and duties of mankind, rarely, if ever, before attained by 
unassisted nature; whose inability to discriminate universally 
between good and evil, and the objects to be severally pursued and 
avoided, was not unknown to him. 1 And hence his writings exhibit 
him, although not uninfected with vices which not even religious 
ignorance, and the customs of a most depraved society, can greatly 
extenuate ; yet, on the whole, possibly the most moral, and certainly 
the happiest, character of profane antiquity. 

Those who have attempted to assimilate the opinions of Horace 
to the tenets of any one of the philosophical sects, have been 
guided rather by detached passages, than by the general tenor of 
his writings. In one place, indeed, where, in writing to Maecenas, 
he gives an account of his method of studying philosophy, he 
distinctly disavows his intention to adopt any system, till he 
has examined all. 2 That, while prosecuting his studies at Athens, 
the Epicurean philosophy might have first called his attention to 
the general subject, is highly probable : the supreme excellence of 
happiness (for such was, after all, the Epicurean rjdovr)) was the leading 
principle of Epicurus : and the same principle, refined from the heart- 
less selfishness which mingled with it in the Epicurean system, is the 
distinguishing mark of what may be called the Horatian philosophy. 
That Horace had studied the philosophy of Epicurus, we learn on 
his own authority ; 3 but nothing is to be inferred with certainty 
from the appellation which he gives himself in his epistle to 
Tibullus, " Epicuri de grege porcum," as he is not there discussing 
his opinions, but rallying himself on his improved condition of 
body. The XXXIYth Ode of the 1st Book, in which he professes 
to renounce the creed of Epicurus, in consequence of having seen 
lightning in a clear sky, is altogether involved in too much 
obscurity, both as to its occasion and object, to enable us to 
derive from it any plausible conjecture. But in those parts of his 
writings which are least liable to cavil, and where he expresses 
his opinions without ornament or reserve, we find some part of the 
doctrines of every philosophical school impugned in turn. The 
Stoics, in particular, he takes every occasion of ridiculing with the 
liveliest humour ; 4 and he admits the power of the gods wherever 
the subject requires an opinion to be given. 5 

1 Hor. 1 Sat. iii. 113. 2 1 Ep. i. 3 1 Sat. v. 

4 See, in particular, 1 Sat. iii. and 2 Sat. iii. 5 1 Ep. xviii. fin. etpassiltl. 



Death of 
Maecenas. 




128 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 

The effects of the philosophy of Horace were put to a severe 
trial by the death of his early friend and best patron, Maecenas, 
u. c. 746 : nor does it appear that it enabled him to recover the 

calamity, as he died a very short 
time after. Maecenas had, for a long- 
time, existed in what Pliny calls 
a perpetual fever; he was living 
in the greatest misery, and yet 
regarding death as the greatest con- 
ceivable of evils ; his sleep was pro- 
cured by wine, distant music, and 
artificial waterfalls ; yet among all 
these appliances, he was, as Seneca 
observes, as restless on his down, 
as Eegulus on the rack. 1 His 
effeminate and luxurious habits 
Maecenas. had made pain intolerable: but' 

it is a most ungenerous and unfounded suspicion that this 
effeminacy is covertly satirized by Horace in the character of 
Malthinus. Horace had, on one occasion, declared the impossi- 
bility of long surviving his friend ; that one day must bring with 
it the fall of both ; 2 and the prediction was very nearly fulfilled. 
The last entreaty of Maecenas to Augustus was, " Horatii Flacci, 
ut mei, esto memor." Though Maecenas, as a patron and amateur 
of literature, fills a large space in the Augustan period, he has no 
claim to notice as a poet. The Prometheus, mentioned by 
Seneca, 3 was probably no tragedy. The Octavia, in Priscian, 4 
is probably a corrupt reading. The elegies ascribed to Pedo 
Albinovanus have been attributed to him : but with no sufficient 
evidence. 

Although the account here given of the death of Maecenas, which 
we have from Suetonius, is sufficiently clear and intelligible in itself, 
some scholars have not been content to leave it in its plain and 
obvious meaning ; and notwithstanding they admit that there did 
not intervene more than a month between the deaths of the two 
illustrious friends, they place that of Horace first. In order to 
support this theory, they are obliged to interpret the word " extre- 
mis" which, in all other passages, signifies at the point of death, 
" extremis indiciis" " extremis verbis" implying that the commen- 
dation of Horace was found in the will of Maecenas, where it was 
allowed to remain, although its object had ceased to require it. 
The only evidence produced for this fact is contemptible to the 
last degree, being some pretended verses of Maecenas on the death 

1 De Prov. iii. 2 2 Od. xvii. 

3 Ep. 19. It is there called "liber," and the quotation from it is not a verse. 

4 x. 8. 



HORACE. 129 

of Horace, preserved by Isidore of Seville. 1 But as the passage Horace. 
stands in Isidore, it is not verse : neither is it expressly attributed to 
Maecenas ; nor is it said that Flaccus is the same with Horace. 
The following is the passage, as it is corrected by Sanadon, to 
support the theory of those who contend for the priority of the 
death of Horace : 

Lugens te, mea vita, nee smaragdos, 
Beryllos neque, Flacce mi, nitentes, 
Nee pereandida margarita quaere-, 
Nee quos Thynica lima perpolivit 
Annellos, neque iaspios lapillos. 

If this be a genuine restoration of the original verses, it manifestly 
proves nothing : but others read " Lucentes, mea vita," &c. 

The great literary influence of Maecenas was, in part, owing to Literary 
his intimacy with Augustus, and his consequent political position; °itocenas° 
and, in part, to his love of literature and literary men ; in no 
degree to any literary excellence of his own : least of all would he 
deserve notice as a poet, though he wrote verses, some of which 
have been preserved. His style in composition was no less affected 
than in dress and manner ; so that his " ringlets " 2 and " curling- 
tongs " 3 were proverbial ; and Augustus rallied him unmercifully, 
though scarcely beyond his deserts. 4 The distortion and dislocation 
which characterised his prose 5 would naturally be less conspicuous 
in metre ; but he wanted the poetic inspiration. Seneca, indeed, 
gives him credit for a lofty and manly genius, which he spoiled by 
wilful effeminacy and affectation — and cites, in proof, the verse — 

Nee tumulum euro ; sepelit Natura relictos. 6 
I ask no tomb ; Nature entombs her dead. 

Yet this has more the air of declamation than of reality or poetry ; 
and the verses which describe his true feelings are in the opposite 
excess. 7 

Horace, like his friend Yirgil, did not escape envy or enmity. 
Pentilius, Demetrius, Fannius, Tigellius, and the respectable 
duumvirate Bavius and Msevius, assailed his poetical fame ; but he 
treated them with more than contempt — he crushed them wrathfully. 
Yet his disposition, though warm and hasty, was forgiving and 
generous ; 8 and no man was ever more beloved by his friends, or 
more deserving of their friendship. In person he was short, and, 
in middle life, stout ; his eyes were black, as was his hair, which, 
however, became grey when he was about forty. 

1 Orig. xix. 32. = Suet. Aug. 86. 3 Dial, de Orat. 26. 

4 Macrob. Sat. vi. 4. 5 g e nec. Ep. cxiv. ; Quinct. ix., 4, 28. 

6 Ep. xcii. 7 lb. Ep. ci. 

s Irasci celerem, tamen ut placabilis essem. — 1 Ep. xx. 25. 

[R. l.] k 



130 



AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. 



Horace. Horace was buried next to the tomb of Maecenas, at the 

extremity of the Esquiline hill. 

We must here leave the history of the most brilliant period of 
Roman poetry with the biography of the character who most clearly 
illustrated, and most essentially adorned it. From those readers 
who think an undue portion of this work has been assigned to this 
subject, we shall shelter ourselves under its interest and extent ; 
and the same plea will hold with those, if there be any, who, on the 
contrary, think enough has not been said ; for to do entire justice 
to a subject of such magnitude, is what a work of this nature 
does not profess. For, in the words of Gesner, speaking of 
the literary life of Horace alone, " adeo ab omnibus inde saculis 
sategerunt circa Horatii Macci Eclogas librarii, interpretes, critici, 
ut jpossit homo diligens, cut bibliothecce pateant, facile librum 
mediocrem vel sold Jiujus Poeta enarrandd historid litterarid 
implere." l 

1 Gesner, Praf. in Horatium. 



&&*> 




Villa of Maecenas. 



131 



MSS., EDITIONS, &c, OE THE AUGUSTAN POETS. 



HORACE. 



MSS. That at Bern is the oldest. For others, see Kirchner. Now. Qusestt. 
Horatianae. Nuremb. 1847. 

Edit. Princ. 4to. supposed to have been printed by Zarotus at Milan, 1470. 
Priority contested by an edition by T. P. Lignamini. There is a folio 
without name or date, of equal rarity. The first with date is 1474, 
Mediolani, apud Zarotum. In the same year the works were published 
at Naples, and the odes and epistles at Ferrara. 

Later editions are : — 

Cruquii. Lugd. Bat. 1603. 

Lambini. Paris. 1605. 

Torrentii. Antverp. 1608. 

Bentleii. Cantab. 1711. 

Dacier and Sanadon. 

Gesneri et Zeunii. Lips, et Glasg. 1762-94. 

Doring. Lips. 1803. 

C. Fea. Romae. 

Vandenbourgii. Paris. 1812. 

Braunhard. Lips. 1833. 

Orelii. Turici. 1843. 

Tate. Horatius Restitutus. Lond. 1837. 

Obbarii. Jenaa. 1848. (The Odes only.) 

Milman (illustr. from the antique). Lond. 1849. 

Subsidia : — 

Masson. Vita Horatii. 
Algarotti. Ead. 

R. von Ommeren, Horaz als Mensch und als Burger von Rom. Uebersetzt 
von Walch. Leipz. 1802. Walckenaer, Histoire de la Vie et des 
Poesies d' Horace. Paris. 1840. Teuffel, Charakteristik des Horazens. 
Leipz. 1842. W. E. Weber, Horaz als Mensch und Dichter. Jena. 1844. 
Kirchner, Qusestiones Horatianse, Leipz. 1847. Grotefend, Schrifts- 
tellerische Laufbahn des Horatius. Hanover, 1849. These are some 
of the most eminent out of an immense quantity of materials. Each 
of the above editions may also be regarded in the number of subsidia. 
j Translations : — 

Francis. The entire works. The best edition is that of Valpy, Lond. 
1831, as it not only embraces Francis, but a selection from miscel- 
laneous translators. 
The Odes. By John Scriven. Lond. 1843. 

The best idea to be obtained of Horace, as a lyrist, by the English reader, is 
from one ode by Milton and a few by Mrs. Hemans. The Satires and 
Epistles of Pope, and some imitations by Swift, afford the best notion 
of Horace's ethical and critical writings. But no writer needs to be 
studied in his own language more than Horace, of whom no trans- 
lation gives any adequate conception. 
, K2 






132 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE AUGUSTAN POETS. 

VIRGIL. 

MSS. Medicean. Vatican. 

Edit. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romse, cir. 1469. 

De la Cerda. Madrid. Fol. 1608-1617. 

Heinsii. Amstel. 1676. 

Masvicii. Leeuwarden. 1727. 

Burmanni. Amstel. 1746. 

Heynii, (edente Wagner) Lips. 1830. 

Martyn's Georgicks. London. 1749. 
The subsidia to Virgil are mainly found in the editions themselves. 

Valp/s Horse Virgilianee illustrates the theory of the identity between 

the Greek and Latin languages, but is not further illustrative of 

Virgil. Heyne contains a complete critical account of the MSS. and 

editions, which are far more numerous than can be here particularised. 
Translations. "Works. Dryden. 

^Eneid. Pitt. 

Bucolicks and Georgicks. Warton. 
Georgicks. Sotheby. 

TIBULLUS. 

Editt. Prince. Tibulli Opera, cum Ovidii Epistola Sapphus ad Phaonem. 

Florentius de Argentina. (Venetiis ?) cir. 1472. 
Tibulli, Catulli, Propertii Opera, cum Statii Sylvis. Vindalin de Spira. 

Venetiis. 1472. 

Vulpius. 

Brockhusius. Amst. 1708. 

Heyne. Lips. 1798. 

Tibullus et Lygdamus. Voss. Heidelberg. 1811. 

Tibullus. Lachmann. Berolini. 1829. 

Lachmann. Explicuit Dissen. Gotting. 1835. 

Subsidia. Ayrmann, Vita Tibulli. Vitemb. 1719. 

Spohn de Vita et Carminibus Tibulli. 1819. 

De Golbe'ry de Tib. Vit. et Carm. Par. 1824. 

PROPERTIUS. 

Editt. Prince. 1472. Place uncertain. Folio and 4to. 

Broukhusius. Amst. 1702. 
Vulpius. Padua. 1755. 
Barthius. Lips. 1778. 
Burmann. Trajecti ad Rhen. 1780. 
Kuinoel. Lips. 1804. 
Lachmann. Lips. 1816. 
Paldamus. Halle. 1827. 
Le Maire. Paris. 1832. 
Hertzberg. Halle. 1844-5. 

OVID. 
Editt. Prince. — m ... 

Balthazar Azoguidi. Bononise. 1471. 1 
Sweynheym et Pannarz. Romae. 1471. J 




MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OE THE AUGUSTAN POETS. 



133 



Aldine. Venetiis. 1502. 

Bersman. Lips. 1582. 

Elzevir. Heinsius. Lugd. Bat. 1629. 

Variorum. Lugd. Bat. 1670. 

Burmann. Amst. 1727. 

Amar. Paris. 1820. 

Metam. Gierig. Lips. 1784. 

Jahn. Lips. 1817. 

Loers. Lips. 1843. 
Fasti. Merkel. Berol. 1841. 
Tristia. Oberlin. Strasb. 1778. 
Amatoria. Wernsdorf. Helmstadt. 1788, 1802. 

Jahn. Lips. 1828. 
Heroides. Loers. Colon. 
Subsidium. — Rosmini, Vita d' Ovidio. The editions are, in a great mea- 
sure, subsidia. 
Translations are numerous. We select : — 

Metam. Edited by Garth. Lond. 1717. 

The contributors were Dryden, Addison, Gay, Pope, &c. 
Howard. Lond. 1807. 
Epistles, several hands : 

Otway, Settle, Dryden, Mulgrave, &c. 1680. 
Fasti. Smedley. 

GRATIUS FALISCUS. 
Ed. Princ. Logi. Aldus Manutius. Venetiis. Afterwards, Augustse. 1534. 

Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1731. 1 -r, ... T j. t\t- 
Wernsdorf. S j Poete, Lat. Mm. 

Translation. — Wase. Lond. 1654. 

MANILIUS. 

Godd. Gemblacensis, Lipsiensis. 

Ed. Princ. Joannes Regiomontanus. Nuremb. cir. 1472. 

Scaliger. Lugd. Bat. 1600. 
Bentley. Lond. 1739. 
Translation. — Creech. Lond. 1697. 



Ed. Princ. Pithceus. 1596. 
Orelli. Turici. 1831. 



PH^DRUS. 



POST-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETS. 



PERSIUS 


. DIED 


a.t. 


63" 




LUCANUS . 




A.D. 


65 >THE NERONIAN AGE 


PETRONIUS . 




A.D. 


67j 








r 25 i 




SILIUS ITALICUS . 


LIVED FROM ABOUT 


A.D. 


l TO 

[100 




VALERIUS FLACCDS. 


FLOURISHED ABOUT 


A.D. 


77 


-THE FLAVIAN AGE. 


JUVENALIS 




A.D. 


82 




MARTIALIS . 




A.D. 


84 




STATIUS . 


DIED 


A.D. 


96 J 




NEMESIANUS T 
CALPURNIUS J 


FLOURISHED ABOUT 


A.D. 


288. 


AVIENUS 




A.D. 


370. 


AUSONIUS . 




A.D. 


392. 


CLAUDIANUS . 
PRUDENTIUS 


. . . .: 


A.D. 


398. 






Remains of th.e Palace of the Caesars. 



PART III. 



DECLINE OF LATIN" POETEY. 



decline of 
Latin Poetry, 



The literary annals of every people present us with crises, to Causes of th 
account for which has been the labour of the learned and the '' 
ingenious. Among these, none is more conspicuous than that 
which took place on the death of Augustus, and none has excited 
a greater zeal and diligence of inquiry into its cause and origin ; 
and yet, perhaps, the whole history of Literature does not afford 
an instance of a revolution so naturally and easily explained. The 
learned and minute Tiraboschi has expended on this subject no 
inconsiderable portion of his erudition and philosophy ; he rejects 
all the hypotheses of his predecessors, and, like the surgeon 
Antistius, who examined the corpse of Julius Cresar, and pro- 
nounced but one wound mortal in twenty-three, allows but one of 
the causes assignable : this is, the licentious character of the times : 



136 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETItY. 



Demoralise 
tion of the 
Romans. 



for the irruption of the barbarians, and the failure of the means of 
learning, circumstances which the historian adduces among the 
causes which accelerated the fall of Roman Literature, had no 
influence in the reign of Tiberius. 

But what, it may be asked, produced this licentious character ? 
and did it not prevail in a very great degree in the reign of Augustus 
himself? That national vice acts powerfully to the prejudice of 
excellence in the arts of imagination is an obvious truth ; it is not, 
however, a sufficient solution of the present problem. The civil 
troubles which, before the accession of Augustus, had desolated 
Italy, had compelled the people, by depriving them of the means 
and fruits of industry, to subsist by rapine or military violence , 
while the conquests of Lucullus, by opening a readier communica- 
tion with the East, had led to the introduction of the luxuries and 
vices of that corrupted portion of the globe. l It is true that 
Augustus gave considerable attention to the suppression of these 
evils ; but, to judge from the writings of the most approved and 

popular authors of his 
time, his court was very 
far from being moral : the 
effects of his legislation, 
indeed, however salutary 
as regards external con- 
duct, could not have 
been sensible on the 
minds of his subjects to 
any material extent, before 
their operation w r as effectu- 
ally paralysed by the 
accession of Tiberius ; 
who, although himself a 
man of liberal education, 
and not a little self-com- 
placent on that account, 
and even a poet, (since 
we learn from Suetonius 2 
that he composed a lyrical 
monody on the death of 
Lucius Caesar, besides 
several poems in Greek,) was as little a patron of true learning as 
he was of pure morality. 

1 Jampriclem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes, 
Et linguam, et mores, et cum tibicine chordas 




Tiberius and Livia. 



Obliquas, necnon gentilia tympana secum 
Vexit, et ad Circum jussas prostare puellas.- 

a Tib. 70. 



-Juv. Sat. iii. 62. 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 137 

It is not easy, however, to see why so much recondite erudition 
and metaphysical speculation should be employed in the investiga- 
tion of causes which seem incapable of escaping the ordinary 
student of history. No such person can be ignorant that the 
pursuits of science and literature have, in all countries, been culti- 
vated with an ardour jointly proportional to their novelty, and to 
the encouragement given them by power. The labours of the early 
poets, especially Ennius, had deeply imbued the Eomans with a 
desire of inspecting the copious sources from which their treasures 
were derived. The study of the Greek literature was, in conse- Exhaustion 
quence, pursued with the greatest enthusiasm : every Greek author Jf^^St 
was read, and almost every Greek author was imitated. It was 
exactly at this juncture, when the excellence of literature began to 
be more generally and more acutely felt than at any preceding 
period, that the policy of Augustus employed the popular sentiment 
in diverting from political speculations what little remained of the 
spirit of old Eome. Nothing, therefore, could be more natural, 
and, we might say, more necessary, than the literary perfection 
which followed. Every department of Greek literature which the 
Eomans were capable of appropriating, now attained the highest 
excellence which its transplanted state would allow. But as the 
Eomans were a people of slender inventive faculties, the resources 
of Greece were no sooner exhausted, than the main stimulus to 
literary exertion ceased; and when, about the same period, the 
patronage which had given action to this stimulus was removed, it 
is nothing astonishing thaL we should meet with that languor which 
is the sure consequence of preternatural excitement, mental as well 
as bodily, political as well as individual. 

The effect of these circumstances is sufficiently conspicuous even 
in the later writings of Ovid. His genius and his habits would not 
admit of his using any other vehicle of his feelings than verse ; but 
the brilliant and luxuriant invention which created the florid fabric 
of the Metamorphoses, and the elegant and elaborate texture of the 
Heroic Epistles, decayed when withdrawn from the sunshine of 
contemporary fame. Of this decay he was himself perfectly 
sensible : * and all the vaunting anticipations of immortality which 
he put forth in the peroration of his Metamorphoses, had no power 
to excite him to write for posterity while the countenance of Caesar 
was adverse. And if such could be the effect which the mere 

1 Da veniam fesso : studiis quoque frsena remisi : 

Ducitur et digitis littera rara meis. 
Impetus ille sacer, qui vatum pectora nutrit, 

Qui prius in nobis esse solebat, abest. 
Vix venit ad partes ; vix sumtae Musa tabellae 

Imponit pigras pene coacta manus. — 4 Pont. ii. 

The whole of the epistle is a valuable illustration of our present position. 



138 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

absence of court favour produced on the vein of a poet of great 
genius, extensive reading, patient labour, and devotion to the 
opinion of posterity, we might, in the absence of additional facts, 
form a tolerably correct estimate of the state of poetry under the 
most brutal and flagitious tyranny which the ancient world ever 
beheld. The only just subject for wonder is, how it comes to pass 
that we meet with any one poet of eminence during the rule of the 
first Caesars : nothing but the irresistible energy of genius, it might 
be supposed, could impel a man to place his sentiments on paper, 
when a look or a gesture might incur the suspicion of a capricious 
despot, or furnish lucrative employment to an alert and vigilant 
informer. Even those poets who escaped the fearful results of 
imperial caprice had little encouragement, at a time in which the 
highest authority in the state meditated the removal of the writings 
and statues of Virgil from the public libraries, and the entire 
suppression of the works of Homer. 1 
Germanicus. It is worthy of observation, that the earliest conspicuous victim 
of the new policy was a poet. The pure faith, the chivalrous 
honour, the devoted patriotism of Drtjsus Germanicus, are 
themes which can scarcely be mentioned, without a desire to linger 
on their contemplation ; yet it belongs to this department of our 
work to do no more than mention that he was, as his character 
would lead us to suppose, a poet. His principal work was a trans- 
lation of Aratus, an author on whom the Romans were fond of 
exercising their metaphrastic abilities.' 2 The following elegant 
epigram is ascribed to his pen : 

Thrax puer, adstricto glacie dum ludit in Hebro, 

Frigore concretas pondere rupit aquas : 
Quumque imae partes rapido traherentur ab amne, 

Abscidit, heu ! tenerum lubrica testa caput. 
Orba quod inventum mater dum conderet urna, 

" Hoc peperi flammis, csetera," dixit, " aquis." 

A Tbracian boy on frozen Hebrus play'd : 

The treacherous floor its trustful freight betray'd. 

The hurrying waters swept the corse away : 

On the sharp ice the fair head sever' d lay. 

The mother spake, as to the urn she gave ; 

" This for the flame I bore ; all else unto the wave." 

To him, as a brother of the lyre, Ovid dedicated his Fasti ; and in 
this character he is spoken of by the same poet in his epistle to 

1 Suet. Calig. 34. 
2 This translation has also been attributed to the Emperor Domitian, who, it 
is well known, affected the title of Germanicus. " Sane recordor," says Heinsius, 
" vidisse me Lutetiae pervetustum Arateorum codicem, qui Domitiano Caesari 
poema istud adserebat : ut veri omnino simile sit, pro Domitiano Germanicum ob 
invidiam nominis in plerisque exemplaribus esse repositum." — Notce in Valeriwn 
Flaccum, ad init.- Bernhardy concurs in this view. Grundr. der R. L. Anm. 200. 
So also Rutgers (Varr. Lectt. hi. p. 276), and Grauert (Rhein. Mus. 1827. iv.) 




Drusus Germanicus. 



GEEMANICUS. 139 

Suilius. 1 His death produced a Monody from the pen of C. Lutorius Germanicus. 
Priscus, a Roman knight, which, however, proved fatal to its 
author. For, being by the senate 
accused of having composed it during 
the illness of its subject, the unfor- 
tunate poet was condemned to death. 
Not unlike was the fate of Cn. Corne- 
lius Lentulus Gsetulicus, the consul, 
historian, and epigrammatist, of whose 
works, however, only three lines, 
belonging, apparently, to an astronomi- 
cal poem, have been preserved. His 
influence with the army rendered him 
too formidable for Tiberius to attack; but 
Caligula put him to death. His writings, 
possibly, may not have been the cause of 
his fall; yet history and epigram, at 
such a period, were more inflammable 
materials than when Horace trembled for his friend Pollio. 2 

With Germanicus set the sun of the Augustan day. All that we 
have to record of classical poetry after him is twilight, or a night 
illuminated awhile by a few splendid constellations, but at length 
subsiding into the gross and starless darkness of barbarism. 

In our sketch of the earlier poetical literature of the Romans, we Didactic and 
have already noticed the influence which the Epic and Didactic Eplc Poetr > '• 
Muses exercised in Latium, from the time when poetry first began 
to possess a sensible existence in the language. There were many 
reasons why this should be the case ; their stern and masculine 
beauty, their regulated and decorous march, and their faultless and 
undistorted proportions, were calculated to give them, in the eyes 
of a Eoman, attractions far superior to any producible by their less 
severe, but less Roman sisters. The success with which they had 
been courted by Nsevius excited the emulation of Ennius ; and his 
example at once made his countrymen familiar with their beauties, 
and jealous of his honours. Virgil, at length, by increasing the 
difficulties of future aspirants to their favours, only increased the 
motives to emulation. But the main efficient cause which directed 
the energies of succeeding poets in these channels, is perhaps to be 
sought in the condition of the period, which naturally suggested 
to those writers whose prudence bore any proportion to their 
genius, the necessity of adopting such arguments as had the least 
connection with existing circumstances. 3 Claudius, it is true, 

1 4 Pont. viii. 2 2 Od. i. 

3 Securus licet TEnean, Rutulumque ferocem 

Committas : nulli gravis est percussus Achilles, 

Aut multuin quaesitus Hylas, urnamque sequutns. 

Juv. Sat. i. 162. 



140 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



patronised literature, and even asserted literary pretensions ; but 
he did not affect to be a poet, nor could poetry, by any possibility, 
have attracted his regard. He, therefore, caused no alteration in 
the poetical character of the time. 

There have not been wanting modern Latin imitations of the 
Georgics ; a circumstance which may, in some degree, qualify our 
surprise, when we find an ancient author attempting to continue 
them. Virgil, in his beautiful episode of the old Corycian horticul- 
turist, appears, with consummate art, insensibly led into a digression 
on trees and flowers; and then, suddenly appearing to discover 
that he has wandered, from the direct track, he exclaims : 

Verum haec ipse equidem, spatiis exclusus iniquis, 
Prsetereo, atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.* 

Columella. Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, of Cadiz, an author 
who is generally referred to the time of Claudius, took the hint, 
and yielded to the importunate entreaties of his friend Silvinus, 
that he would make the Xth Book of his work on Farming, which 
was to comprise the art of Gardening, a continuation of the Georgics. 
The work is still extant. It very much resembles the labours of 
modern Latin poets ; the style, the language, and the imagery of 
Virgil are closely copied ; and, whatever may be its merit, it has 
received from the critics very high commendation. It cannot, 
however, be denied that the poem of Columella is rather a chaste 
and elegant study after a great master, than a bold and noble effort 
of original genius, kindling at the torch of a kindred spirit. 

Columella expressed himself content to be the rival of Virgil ; a 
sentiment which, however chargeable with self-complacency, is 
modest in comparison of those which were held by almost all con- 
temporary and succeeding Epic writers, whose ridiculous ambition 
to surpass the most perfect and polished models introduced into 
Latin Poetry a character of exaggeration and caricature, which 
conspired with the causes before noticed to accelerate the final ruin 
of Eoman Literature. The author most deeply imbued with 
this pernicious vanity was Lucan, whose rank among Latin Poets 
requires us to give a slight sketch of his life, which will also be 
serviceable in illustrating the state of public feeling in regard to 
Literature, during the period in which he flourished. 

Lucan. Marcus Ann^eus Lucanus, 2 the son of Annseus Mella, a 

Eoman knight, and Atilla, was born at Cordova in Spain, a.d. 38, 
and instructed in philosophy and polite literature by Palsemon, 
Virginius, and Cornutus. His talents were conspicuous at an early 
age : Seneca, in his Consolation to Helvia, calls him, " Marcum, 
blandissimum puerum, ad cujus conspectum nulla potest durare 
tristitia." His first poetical effort was a panegyric on Nero at the 



i Georg. 



148. 



2 Suet. Vit. Luc. 



LUCAN. 



141 




Lucan. 



quinquennial poetical contest, called the Neronia, from its founder, Lucan. 
in which he is said to have vanquished the Emperor himself : l but 
it is well observed by Tiraboschi, that Lucan was dead before the 
second celebration of the Neronia; 
and Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio, are 
all agreed on the fact that Nero was 
victor in the first. 2 Such, at least, is 
the order preserved by Suetonius; but 
Statius, in his Genethliacon, places 
first in order the poem called Iliaca, 
or Sector is lytra, (\vrpa.) 3 His next 
composition was a Satire called Incen- 
diuiii Urbis, on the infamous conduct 
of Nero in the conflagration at Kome. 
Afterwards he produced a poem called 
KaTaKavcrnos, and then his great work, 
the Pharsalia. He was then recalled 

from Athens, where he had been residing, according to the custom 
of the Eoman youth, by Nero, who treated him with familiarity, 
and bestowed on him the office of Quastor. Although affecting to 
admire the genius of Lucan, it is probable that the Prince was 
anxious to maintain a close observation over a young man whose 
talents awakened his envy, and whose high spirit and free senti- 
ments aroused his fears. The subject of the Pharsalia was 
especially critical at that period ; the history of the rise of that 
intolerable tyranny under which the nation was groaning, and the 
remembrance of times alike free and happy, could not be contem- 
plated with safety to the imperial despot. Lucan was not content 
with merely placing this exciting picture before the eyes of his 
fellow-citizens ; he openly advocated the character and policy 
of Pompey ; he as openly execrated the motives and the con- 
duct of the civil war ; and, after presenting his readers with a 
highly-coloured description of the miseries and horrors which it 
originated, he crowned his period with a compliment to Nero, 
which, as the Emperor could not fail to perceive, was a tissue of 
the bitterest irony. 4 " Crimes and atrocities themselves," says the 
Poet, " are welcome as the price of Nero ! " 

1 "Prima ingenii experhnenta in Neronis laudibus dedit, quinquennali cer- 
tamine." — Suet. Yit. Luc. This poem is called "Orpheus:" it probably com- 
plimented the Emperor on his celebrity as a musician. 

2 Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital.,tom. ii. lib. i. cap. x. sez. 4. 

3 Stat. Sylv. ii. 7. 

4 Quod si non aliam venturo fata Neroni 
Invenere viam, magnoque seterna parantur 
Regna deis, ccelumque suo servire Tonanti 
Non nisi ssevorum potuit post bella gigantum : 
Jam nihil, 6 superi, querimur ! Scelera ipsa, nefasque 
Sac merccde placent ! — et seqq. — Luc. Phars. i. 33. 



142 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Locan. 



Conspires 
against the 
kmperor. 



Is executed. 



Character 
of the 
Pharsalia. 



Such being, in all probability, the motives of Nero, and such 
being the undoubted character of Lucan, it was not to be expected 
that a reciprocity even of external courtesies could long subsist 
between them. The real sentiments of the latter were no secret to 
the Emperor, nor were pains taken to disguise them ; the haughty 
spirit of the poet could not brook the observation to which his 
conduct was exposed, and he was little anxious to manifest a regard 
to it. Envy, indignation, and policy, at length prompted the 
Emperor to suppress the writings of Lucan, and to require him 
never to write poetry again. The proverbial irritability of the 
poetic race, combined with the impetuous temperament of the 
particular poet, hurled back the mandate with defiance, in a bitter 
Satire on the Emperor and his adherents. At length, in the con- 
spiracy of Piso, Lucan assumed a conspicuous part ; and, principally 
through the total disregard of secrecy, which he, on this, as on all 
other occasions, evinced, that conspiracy was divulged. On his 
apprehension his former constancy failed him, and, being required 
to surrender his accomplices, he named his innocent mother. But 
his death was determined : his only privilege was the choice of the 
mode, which he exercised by having the veins of his arms opened. 
Breathing the true ruling passion of a poet, his last message to his 
father regarded the correction of some verses, and his last words 
were a quotation from the Pharsalia, which describes the death of 
a soldier under circumstances similar to his own. 1 This event took 
place a.d. 65. 

Independently of its intrinsic merits, on the subject of which 
critics are little agreed, the Pharsalia is valuable, as presenting a 
faithful picture, both of the disposition of its author, and of the 
literary character of the times. To the former of these must be 
attributed those historical misstatements and suppressions which 
favour the cause of Pompey, and which have afforded ample 
materials for ostentatious censure to modern critics; while the 
whole character of the poem, turgid, exaggerated, and laborious, 
and the commendations indiscriminately bestowed on it by suc- 
ceeding poets of high reputation, 2 sufficiently indicate the prevalent 

1 So Tacitus, Ann. xv. 70. The passage is supposed to be Phars. iii. 635, seqq. 
■where a soldier is described torn in pieces by a boarding-hook in a naval engagement. 

2 It will not be necessary to transcribe the \arious " Testimonia de Lucano, 1 ' 
which may be found prefixed to almost any edition of this poet. Statius has 
written 135 hendecasyllabics of the most extravagant eulogy on Lucan; but three 
will comprise their whole essence : 

Attollat refluos in astra fontes 
Graio nobilior melete Bcetisf 
Bcetin, Mantua, provocare noli! ! 

Similarly Martial, (vii. 21.) 

Hoc meruit quum te terris, Lucane, dedisset, 
Mixtus Castaliae Bsetis ut esset aquae ! 



SENECA. 



143 



taste of the period included between the age of Augustus and the Lucan. 
final extinction of the Roman literature and language, QuinctiHan, 
indeed, with his usual superiority to the depraved sentiments of his 
age, considers Lucan more of an orator than a poet ; yet his 
manner of delivering his opinion plainly discovers how little it was 
in unison with that of the public. 1 Modern critics are seldom 
temperate in their views of this writer ; while some regard him as 
equal, and even superior, to Virgil, others consider his poem only 
as a mass of defects, scarcely relieved by an accidental excellence. 
His extravagances have been frequently commented on ; and we 
think ourselves discharged from the obligation of retailing the 
unmerciful preface of Burmann, and the scarcely less intolerant 
observations of Spence. In all criticisms on the Pkarsalia, the 
incompleteness of the work, and the youth of the writer, who died 
at the age of twenty-seven, must be taken into consideration. 

Besides the works above mentioned, Lucan is said to have Minor Poems 
written a book of Saturnalia, ten books of Sylvce, a tragedy called of Lucan - 
Medea, and fourteen Salticte Fabulce, or dramatic ballets. Some 
confound the KaraKavo-fios with the Urbis Incendium; but we are 
justified in the distinction made above by the epitaph, or " encomion," 
written on Lucan by Pomponius Sabinus, who recognises two 
poems of similar argument : 

Hinc " Sylvse," geminceque " Faces," &c. 
His wife, Polla Argentaria, also was a literary character, and is said, Poiia 

not Without some colour of Argentaria. 

probability, to have assisted in 
the composition of the Pkarsalia. 
The uncle of Lucan was the 
celebrated Lucius Ann^eus Se- 
neca, the question regarding 
the genuineness of whose trage- 
dies is one of some obscurity. 
All the manuscripts uniformly 
present the title "L. Annaei 
Senecse." This renders it diffi- 
cult to suppose that the work is 
not genuine, unless we conceive 
that there existed some other 
Lucius Annseus Seneca, who 
might be its author. But Mar- 
tial, 2 in speaking of the family, 
mentions only two as celebrated ; 
Statius mentions none but the philosopher ; 3 and Quinctilian, also, 

1 " TJt dicam quod sentio, magis oratoribus quam poetis annumerandus." 
— Quinct. x 1. 2 Mart. i. 62. 3 Encoui. Lucani. 




His 



144 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Seneca. who cites a verse from the Medea of Seneca, 1 mentions the philo- 
sopher only, concerning whom he observes in another place, 2 that 
he excelled in almost every department of learning, and that his 
speeches, poems, epistles, and dialogues, were in the hands of the 
public. Again he alludes to a discussion which took place between 
Pomponius Secundus and Seneca, relative to an expression of the 
tragedian Attius ; 3 and as Pomponius was himself a tragedian, and 
a tragedian was the subject of the controversy, it is supposed that 
Seneca had a nearer interest in the subject than that of a mere 
lover of such literature. The testimony of Martial, it must be con- 
fessed, is urged also on the opposite side ; in another place he calls 
the family of Seneca, " docti Senecse ter numeranda domus ; " but 
in reply to this, it is said, that these words are only equivalent to the 
" duosque Senecas, unicumque Lucanum, " of the same author, 
which words allude to Lucius and Marcus. This is, after all, the 
best testimony that can be adduced against the genuineness of the 
tragedies of Seneca. The next is that of Sidonius Apollinaris, 4 
who very circumstantially distinguishes between the philosopher 
and the tragedian : 

Non quod Corduba praepotens alumnis 
Facundum ciet, hie putes legendum : 
Quorum unus colit hispidnm Platona, 
Incassumque suum monet Neronem : 
Orchestram quatit alter Euripldis, 
Pictum faecibus iEschylum sequutus, 
Aut plaustris solitum sonare Thespin. 

But the testimony of this author is of very small value. That of 
Paulus Diaconus is absolutely of none. His words are, "hu jus 
(sc. Neronis) temporibus poetse pollebant Romse, Lucanus, Juve- 
nalis, et Persius, Senecaque Tragicus ; " 5 there is nothing in this 
sentence to show that the philosopher was not meant ; because the 
writer is speaking of him only in his poetical capacity. On the 
whole, therefore, the evidence of antiquity appears favourable to 
the claims of the philosopher. Be the tragedies of Seneca, how- 
ever, the production of whom they may, they are poems of great 
beauty and unquestionable antiquity ; and though few readers will 
be disposed, with Scaliger, 6 to consider them equal to any Greek 
tragedies, and superior in brilliancy and elegance to Euripides, 
fewer will concur in the vituperation of Bernhardy; 7 and most 
will allow that they contain, notwithstanding their occasional hard- 
ness and turgidity, a great deal of fine poetry and sound philosophy. 
That they are not the production of modern forgery is clear, since 
they have been quoted not only by Quinctilian, as cited above, but 

1 Quinct. ix. 2. 2 Id. x 1. 3 Id. ™i. 3. 

4 Carm. x. ad Magn. Fel. 5 Paul. Diac. Misc. Hist. lib. viii. 

6 Seal. Poet. lib. v. c. 6. 7 Gescb. der Rom. Lit. § 72. 



POMPONIUS SECUNDUS. 145 

by Valerius Probus, 1 Terentian, 2 Luctatius, 3 (the Scholiast on Statius,) Seneca, 
and Priscian. 4 However, we must admit that the Octavia, if 
written by the philosopher, could never have been published during 
his life, as it is nothing less then a catalogue of the enormities of 
Nero, thrown into bold relief by strong poetical colouring. 5 It is, 
however, dissimilar in style and inferior in merit to the other 
tragedies. It might indeed be urged, that instances are not wanting 
of poets who defied the imperial displeasure ; but this is little 
probable in the case of Seneca, as we shall see when we come to 
consider his conduct in regard to Claudius. 

With much intrinsic value, the tragedies of Seneca possess an state of the 
additional claim to interest, as the only entire productions of the Dl ' ama - 
Latin Melpomene which have survived the injuries of time and 
barbarism. While they serve to confirm the assertion of Horace 
concerning the tragic spirit and happy daring of Eoman bards, 
they exhibit throughout, in their stiff, rhetorical, declamatory 
language, and undramatic character, the strongest evidence that they 
were composed for the closet, and that, consequently, at this period, 
the legitimate drama of Eome was nearly extinct. 

The correspondent of Seneca, Pomponius Sectjndus, to whom Pomponius 
we have before alluded, appears to have been the only person who Secundus - 
applied himself earnestly to the reformation of the Eoman stage. 
Ciuinctilian considers him the first of Latin tragedians ; 6 and the 
elder Pliny, as we learn from his nephew, 7 had written a life of him 
in two books. Beside these unexceptionable testimonies to his 
excellence, we have the no less valuable authority of Tacitus, 8 for 
pronouncing him " a man of elegant habits and splendid talents." 
What is most important in illustration of his opinions of dramatic 
excellence, is an anecdote of him related by Pliny, which proves 
that he was an enemy to the prevalent fashion of writing for the 
closet. Whenever his friends suggested an improvement, he always 
replied, " I appeal to the public." But this example was unsup- 
ported ; and accordingly we find no traces of eminent dramatic 
success after his time, unless we are to except one Virginius, who Virginia. 
wrote comedies both on the old and new school, and Mimiambics, 
and who is celebrated by the younger Pliny 9 as a paragon of 
universal perfection. But Pliny's extravagant commendations, and 

1 Val. Prob. Gramm. Inst. lib. i. de syllab. met. pass. 

2 Terent. Maur. de met. Bucol. et de met. Hendecas. 

3 Luct. lib. iv. Theb. 4 Prise, lib. vi. 

5 We have confined ourselves, in giving a sketch of this question, to ancient 
testimony only. Those who wish to prosecute the subject may consult the works 
of Justus Lipsius, Heinsius, Erasmus, and Sealiger ; and Brumoy's Theatre des 
Grecs. Also Delrio, Syutagm. trag. lat. Proleg. II. ; Klotsch. Prolus. de Annaeo 
Seneca. 

6 Quinct. x. 1. 7 Plin. iii. 5. 

8 5 Ann. viii. 9 Plin. vi. 21. 

[r. l.] l 



146 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Seneca. 



Matemus. 



his expression " circa me tantum benignitate nimia excessit," 
coupled with the gross egotism of the writer, and independent of all 
other support, justly render this evidence suspicious. Maternus, 
as we learn from the author of the Dialogue Be Oratoribus, 1 wrote 
three tragedies, intituled Cato, Medea, and Thyestes ; and Martial has 
Memor. this epigram on Sc^eva Memor, brother of Turnus the satirist : 

Clarus fronde Jovis, Romani fama cothwrni 3 
Spirat Apellea redditus arte Memor." 2 

Vano. Varro, also, is thus mentioned by the same author : 

Varro, Sophocleo non inficiande cothurno, 
Nee minus in Calabra suspiciende lyra. 3 

Whether " Calabra lyra " alludes to Horace or Ennius, is a question 
which must remain undecided until the works of this poet are found. 
It seems that he was also a mimographer ; and, apparently, com- 
posed a mimetic piece, in imitation of the Pkasma of a certain 
Catullus mentioned by Juvenal. 4 From the subjects mentioned, 5 
Bassus would appear to have been a tragedian ; and Tucca was 
so pertinacious an imitator of Martial, that he took to writing 
tragedies, because his model had done so. 6 The assertion casts 
a doubt on itself: for from the same epigram we should con- 
clude that Martial had tried his hand in epic, lyric, and satiric 
composition, which is far from probable. Martial's tragedies, 
therefore, as well as those of Tucca, had, in all probability, no 
existence out of this piece of pleasantry. But it is nothing surprising 
that dramatic poetry should have died out under the empire of 
the Caesars. Eather is it wonderful that any kind of literature should 
have survived. The stage had been a difficulty with all Eoman 
governments ; and now, even in the agonies of its dissolution, it con- 
tinued to wound its oppressors, and make itself feared. Tiberius 
put to death Mamercus iEmilius Scaurus, in part on account of his 
tragedy of Atreus, in which he imagined the poet had alluded to 
himself : 7 and, on the alleged ground of the immodesty and seditious 
character of the Atellanes, banished the actors from Italy. 8 Caligula 
did not hesitate to burn an Atellane poet alive in the arena of the 
amphitheatre, for a verse which appeared to reflect on him. 9 Nero, 
notwithstanding, was attacked from the stage ■} and it is not unlikely 
that the Maternus already mentioned was the sophist recorded by 
Dio Cassius 2 as the victim of Domitian's jealousy, on account of the 
freedom of his verses. 



1 Dial, de Orat. ii. 3. 
3 v. 31. 

5 Mart. v. 53. 

7 Tac. Ann. vi. 29. 

9 Suet. Cal. 27. 

2 lxvii. 12. 



2 Mart. xi. 10. 
4 Sat. viii. 186. 
6 xii. 94. 

8 Tac. Ann. iv. 14. 
1 Suet. Nero, 39. 



SATIRE. 147 

Of the epigrams ascribed to Seneca, it is needless to say more Seneca's 
than that they are so exquisitely frigid, that they become sometimes Ep 1 ?™ 1118 - 
amusing, — as the extremes of heat and cold are said to produce 
similar sensations. It is scarcely possible to believe that the 
doggrel which they contain could ever have fallen from the pen of 
the tragedian, and the undoubted author of a work to which we 
have before alluded, and which we now come more particularly to 
consider, the curious and celebrated ' AttokoKokxivtcoo-ls. But here it 
will be convenient to premise a few words on the state of satirical 
literature in the age of the first emperors. 

The circumstances most favourable to the prod action of Satire Satire. 
are not always the most propitious to its publication. As the 
objects of Satire are vice and folly, the wise and virtuous, when 
vice and folly predominate, of necessity become satirists, and, even 
where nature denies, indignation prompts the verse. 1 But the 
misfortune is, that, under these circumstances, the satirist can 
rarely disclose his opinions with safety ; and this was eminently 
the case in the age of the early emperors. Under those capricious 
tyrants all literary occupation was unsafe ; but to name an 
individual was almost certain destruction. 2 The dramatic writers 
were not the only poetical martyrs. iElius Saturninus, for 
writing satirical verses on the Emperor Tiberius, was hurled from 
the Tarpeian rock; 3 Sextius Vestilius, 
and Sextius Paconianus, suffered death on 
conviction or suspicion of similar offences; 
and Caius Cominius, a Eoman knight, 
who had been equally guilty, was with 
difficulty saved through, the intercession 
of his brother. 4 Nor was it much less 
perilous to attack vice in the abstract ; 
the guilty are always disposed to appro- 
priate what they know to be merited; 
and if, on any occasion, the conscience 
of the Emperor acquitted a poet, there 
were those around him whose internal 
admonitions were less readily pacified. Taipei 

It is therefore a remarkable phenomenon 

that this period produced any satire at all; and it is little 
matter of surprise that the few whose virtuous indignation sur- 

1 Juv. i. 79. 

2 Pone Tigellinum, tasda lucebis in ilia, 
Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant, 
Et latum media sulcum deducis arena. — Juv. Sat. i. 155. 

Whatever these corrupt and inconstructible lines may signify literally, the 
general meaning is sufficiently clear. 

3 Dio. Cass. lib. lvii. fin. ' 4 Tac. Ann. vi. 9, 29, 39. 




148 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Satire. passed their worldly prudence were careful, while they gave vent 

to the ebullition of revolting integrity, to adopt what they regarded 
a safe degree of obscurity. If this was necessary in the time of 
Juvenal, as that poet intimates that it was, 1 it was incalculably 
more so in the period of which we are now treating. Various, 
therefore, were the methods resorted to by those who felt them- 
selves unable to stem the exuberance of the satiric vein. Lucan 
concealed it beneath ironical adulation ; Persius resorted to obscure 
and intricate metaphor, and significant personification. During the 
life of Claudius, Seneca, although he had personal as well as public 
motives of dislike to that weak and unjust prince, suppressed his 
real feelings with what may be thought something more, or perhaps 
less, than fortitude ; for, in his letter to Polybius, the freedman of 
Claudius, written while he was smarting under the Emperor's 
displeasure, he calls him " the truly gentle," " whose first virtue is 
clemency," " whose memory comprehends all the maxims of the 
sages;" and, at last, "the great and most illustrious deity!" 
But when the base object of his baser adulation was no longer 
accessible to its solicitations, he seems to have determined to make 
the most ample possible atonement for the expressions wrung from 
him by urgent misery and misplaced hope : and he who on earth 
was a present god, becomes, in the regions of disembodied spirits, 
the kindred associate of pumpkins ! The contrast which the early 
part of the reign of Nero presented to that of his brutish predecessor 
afforded a favourable opportunity for undisguised expression of 
opinion ; and this facility seemed increased in the case of Seneca, 
in consequence of his relative situation with regard to the new 
monarch. The 'Akokoaoicvvtooo-is, therefore, speaks a plain and 
unfettered language; it is evidently the production of a hand 
expatiating and exulting in the removal of its manacle, 2 and, as it 
is the only satire of this description which these times have 
transmitted to us, it would be valuable, even had it no other 
merit than curiosity. It is also curious as a specimen of the Yar- 
ronian satire, the nature and origin of which we have elsewhere 
discussed. 

But indeed the ' AttokoXokvptcoo-is is a piece of great intrinsic 
merits, not the least of which is its originality, or, at least, its 
original air ; for, whatever the compositions of Varro may have 
been, it bears not the slightest resemblance to any anterior extant 
Latin production. The title itself is extremely ingenious, being a kind 
of caricature of the diroQeGxris, or aTraOavaToaais, by which it is 
intimated that, instead of being translated to the condition and 

1 Vide Juv. Sat. i. passim, prcesertim sub Jin. 
2 "Ego scio me liberum factum ex quo diem suum obiit ille qui verum pro- 
verbium fecerat, aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere." — Senec. 'KttokoKokvut. 
sub init. 






SATIRE. SENECA. COENTJTUS. 149 

society of the gods, Claudius was more appropriately conveyed to the Seneca, 
paradise of gourds or pumpkins, things which in life he had most re- 
sembled through his grossness and fatuity. The raillery on Geminius, 
who pretended to have seen Drusilla, the sister of Caligula, ascend 
to heaven ; the council of the gods, and speech of Augustus ; the 
expulsion of Claudius from heaven ; his funeral dirge ; his descent 
to the shades, and the discussion which there takes place on the 
nature of the punishment suited to him ; and, lastly, his condem- 
nation to play for ever with a bottomless dice-box, are all strokes 
of a master. It is by no means improbable that this work deter- 
mined Nero to remove Seneca at the first favourable opportunity; 
since it was obvious that, had the satirist survived him, his own 
memory would have been treated as unceremoniously as that of his 
predecessor. 

Although Seneca had not the fortitude to avail himself, as largely 
as he might have done, of the genius and the materials which he 
possessed for satire, others were less circumspect. One of the 
principal of these was Makctjs Ann^etjs Cokntjttjs, if we regard Cornutus. 
consideration and learning; but his writings of this description 
must have been very scanty, inasmuch as it has been questioned 
whether any such ever existed. But Fulgentius Planciades, as 
quoted by Casaubon in his elaborate treatise on this subject, 
expressly cites his satire : " Titivillitium : M. Cornutus in Satura 
ait : Titivillitii sat cedo tibi." As the preceptor of Persius, it is 
not improbable that he first kindled the spirit of satire in the breast 
of that poet ; but this conclusion has been too precipitately deduced 
from some verses spoken in his person by Persius, to whom they 
are supposed to be addressed : 

Verba togse sequeris; juncture, callidus acri, 
Ore teris modico, pallentes radere mores 
Doctics, et ingenue- culpam defigere ludo : l 

for " doctus " may simply mean skilful, and, even though it should be 
taken parti cipially, it will not hence follow that Persius caught the 
satiric fire from any regular production of Cornutus. Indeed Sueto- 
nius expressly says of Persius, that it was not until he had completed 
his scholastic exercises, and read the Xth Book of Lucilius, that his 
taste for satire became conspicuous ; although it will still remain 
highly probable that his relish for this poet was the result of habits 
of thinking engendered by his preceptor. But whether Cornutus 
was as eminent in Satire as in other branches of literary excellence, 
must now be for ever uncertain. Unquestionable it is that he was 
a man of great talent and erudition. Suetonius 2 informs us that 
he was a tragedian ; but his greatest reputation was in philosophy. 

1 Sat. v. 14. 
2 In Vit. Persii. (This biography is also ascribed to Valerius Probus.) 



150 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Cornutus. 



Such, however, was the opinion of his universal taste and informa- 
tion, that Nero consulted him on the conduct of a poem which he 
had just begun on the Roman History. His opinion, unfortunately, 
happened to disagree with that of the 
Emperor, who rewarded him with ban- 
ishment, and (if we may believe Suidas 1 ), 
with death. He enjoyed, however, the 
satisfaction of seeing his pupil Persius 
accomplish his honourable career. To 
this eminent satirist the course of our 
observations will now conduct us. 

Aulus Persius Flaccus, 2 descended 
of an ancient, though plebeian family, 3 
was born at Volaterra, now Volterra, 
in Etruria, u. c. 787. Such, at least, 
is the substance of ancient testimony. 4 
But some moderns conclude that he 
was born at Luna Portus, in Liguria, 
from the following verses, which, in 




Persias. 



Persius. truth, relate to the place of his residence : 

Mihi nunc Ligus ora 
Intepet, hybernatque meum mare, qua latus ingens 
Dant scopuli, et multa littus se valle receptat. 
" Lunai portum est opera cognoscere, cives." 5 

He was, however, himself a Eoman knight, and connected with 
the first families in Rome. At the age of six years he lost his 
father Elaccus ; his mother, Eulvia Sisenna, contracted a second 
marriage, which was dissolved by the death of her husband not 
many years after. He studied till his twelfth year at the place of 
his nativity ; afterwards he removed to Piome, where he prosecuted 
Patemon. his studies under Remmius Pal,emon and Yirginius Elaccus. 
The former of these affected to be a poet. He wrote to please the 
vulgar ; 6 but so preposterous was his vanity, that he conceived 
that Yirgil had been inspired to predict him in the emphatic 
hemistich, 

Yenit ecce Palfemon. 



By a low quibble on the name of Yarro, (borrowed, as we must 

1 Suid. voc. Kopvovros. 2 Suet. Vit. Persii. 

3 " Aus einer angesehenen Ritterfamilie" says B'ahr; (Geschieht. der Rom. Lit. 
sec. 132). But Casaubon says, apparently Tvith more truth, "Plebeiam [gentem 
Persii] fuisse fasti suadent, in quibus nemo, quod sciam, ejus nominis celebratur." 
— Casaub. Comm. in Pers. 

4 Euseb. Chron. ; Cassiodor. Fast. 5 Sat. vi. 6. 

6 Scribat carmina circulis Palaemon : — 

Me raris juvat auribus placere.' — Mart. ii. 82. 



PEPSITJS. 151 

admit, from Cicero,) lie called that most learned of all the Komans Persius. 
a swine ; and affirmed that learning was born, and would perish, 
with himself. He was originally a slave ; and his mind appears 
never to have been emancipated, as even Tiberius and Claudius 
pronounced him utterly unfit for a guardian of youth. At the age 
of sixteen, Persius became acquainted with the celebrated Cornutus, 
whom we have just noticed, whose faithful disciple and friend he 
ever after continued. Hence it was that he intimately cultivated the 
acquaintance of many poets and literary men, especially of his 
fellow-pupil Lucan, whose admiration of his writings was so 
excessive, that, if we are to believe Suetonius, he with difficulty 
restrained himself from open commendation when Persius recited. 
His life, at least the information we possess respecting it, presents 
no prominent occurrence ; he is described by his biographer as 
handsome in person, gentle in manners, and even of maiden 
modesty ; of temperate habits, and remarkably affectionate to his 
relations. At his death, which took place before he attained the 
age of thirty, he bequeathed his library and a handsome sum of 
money to his preceptor Cornutus ; the philosopher, however, 
retained the books only, and sent back the money to the sisters 
of his pupil. 

That a satirist of the Neronian period should have been allowed 
to descend to his grave in peace, is an event not altogether 
unworthy of remark ; but, in the case of Persius, Pate, perhaps, 
did no more than anticipate the tyrant ; moreover, the satirist 
himself was remarkably cautious and guarded, and even did not 
always trust his own circumspection, but submitted his writings, 
before publication, to his faithful and judicious preceptor. That he 
did not spare the Emperor we know from the consent of all tradition 
respecting his IYth Satire, wherein Socrates is described as 
inveighing against the vices of Alcibiades. Nothing, however, can 
be more cautiously managed than this Satire ; so incapable was it 
of self-appropriation, except by conscious guilt, that to have 

1 resented it would have been to confess its truth and poignancy. 
On one occasion he showed to Cornutus his 1st Satire, in which he 
had ridiculed the literary taste of his times, and in which Nero 
was by no means spared, although perhaps not described in the 

' verse beginning 

Auriculas asini Mida rex habet : 

j an expression, apparently, as little capable of appropriation as any 
in the IYth. His preceptor, however, thought otherwise ; and 
altered the verse as it now stands, 

Auriculas asini quis non habet ? 

Prom this anecdote Bayle, 1 in a note, which we will not injure 
1 Diet. voc. Perse. 



152 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 



Persius. 



Csesius 
Bassus. 



by abridgment, concludes, as it appears to us, very justly, that the 
verses in the 1st Satire said to be quoted from the writings of 
Nero, could not have been the production of that prince ; inasmuch 
as such conduct on the part of the poet would have been incal- 
culably more imprudent than the very questionable passage which 
Cornutus compelled him to alter. 

It is, doubtless, to this prudent abstinence from the very 
semblance of personality that the Satires of Persius are partly 
indebted for that intense obscurity which presents so formidable 
a counterpoise to their sterling merit. Yet it is impossible always 
to acquit their author of partiality for the dark and difficult, even 
where he had no prudential considerations to cry " ctkotktov" as 
Casaubon tells us his preceptor Cornutus w 7 as accustomed to do. 
His biographer, no less circumstantial than concise, informs us 
that he wrote seldom and slowly ; which latter circumstance proves 
that his obscurities cannot be the result of hasty and careless com- 
position. Joannes Lydus attributes them to an ambition of 
imitating Sophron. 1 We are inclined to believe the hypothesis of 
Tiraboschi to be no less true than ingenious, that a vain hope of 
excelling Horace misled Persius, just as the desire of surpassing 
Yirgil seduced his friend Lucan. In an elaborate endeavour to 
exceed the conciseness and terseness of his model, he encountered 
a danger which Horace himself had perceived and pointed out. 2 
His difficulties, undoubtedly, have been augmented by time and 
transcription, as is evident from the high popularity which he 
enjoyed among his contemporaries 3 and immediate successors ; 
and although conceits and metaphors w r hich would have been 
openly exploded in the age of Horace were studied and applauded 
in that of Quinctilian ; yet the great critic, ever superior to the 
errors of his time, is to be heard wdth deference, when he tells us 
that Persius, in a single volume, has earned a considerable pro- 
portion of real glory : 4 while the testimony of Martial, that the 
fame of this little volume exceeded that of Marsus's Amazonis, h is 
important, when the high opinion which Martial entertained of that 
poet is taken into consideration. 6 

The Satires of Persius, as we now have them, were revised by 
Cornutus, and edited by Csesius Bassus, the intimate friend of the 
author, to whom the YIth was addressed, and who has been con- 
founded with G-avius Bassus, to whom Fulgentius ascribes a satire." 



1 DeMag. Rom.i. 41. 

2 Brevis esse laboro, 

Obscurus fio. — De Art. Pott. 25. 

3 "Editum librum continuo mirari homines et deripere coeperuut." — Suet. 
Vita. 4 Quinct. x. 1. 



r. 28. 



6 See 



page 



118. 



' Voc. Veruina. 



PETROSITIS. 153 

This CaBsius has received very high commendation from Quinctilian. 1 Persius. 
After the well-known declaration respecting Horace, that he was 
the only Latin lyric worth perusal, the critic proceeds : " Si quern 
adjicere velis, is erit Ca3sius Bassus, quern nuper vidimus : " but 
the succeeding passage is still more curious : " sed eum longe 
prsecedunt ingenia viventium." For, as far as other testimony is 
concerned, we know of no lyrist worthy of being named with 
Horace. The few that occur will be mentioned as we advance. 
Some unfinished verses at the end of the work of Persius, (which 
are supposed to have been the beginning of another satire,) were 
cancelled. Besides this work, Persius had composed, when very 
young, a prsetextate play, a book called 'OdoinopiKa , and some 
verses on the unfortunate and heroic Arria ; all which produc- 
tions his mother, acting by the advice of Cornutus, caused to be 
destroyed. 

Such are the most important authentic particulars respecting the 
state of Satire under the dominion of Nero ; but it will be conve- 
nient slightly to transgress the limits of the period which we are 
now treating, in order to notice those satirists, the analogy of 
whose subjects and genius appears to demand our present atten- 
tion. We cannot advance to these more systematically than by a 
review of the slender and obscure particulars which exist respecting 
the writings of Petrositis. That this subject, however, has been Petronius. 
involved in more difficulty than really belongs to it, we think we 
shall be enabled satisfactorily to show. Fragments of Petronius 
had been printed by Bernardinus de Yitalibus, at Venice, in 1499, 
and by Jacobus Thanner, at Leipzig, in 1500 ; but in the year 
1662, Petrus Petitus, or, as he styled himself, Marinus Statilius, a 
literary Dalmatian, discovered at Traw a MS. containing a much 
more considerable fragment, which was afterwards published at 
Padua and Amsterdam, and ultimately purchased at Rome for the 
library of the King of Prance, in the year 1703. The eminent 
Mr. J. B. Grail, one of the curators of this library, politely allowed 
Mr. Guerard, a young gentleman of considerable learning, employed 
in the manuscript department, to afford us the following circum- 
stantial information respecting this valuable codex, which is classed 
in the library under the number 7989. "It is a small folio, two 
fingers thick, written on very substantial paper, and in a very legible 
hand. The titles are in vermilion ; the beginnings of the chapters 
&c, are also in vermilion or blue. It contains the poems of 
Tibullus, Propertius, and Catullus, as we have them in the ordinary 
printed editions ; then appears the date of the 20th of November, 
1423. After these comes the letter of Sappho, and then the work 
of Petronius. The extracts are intituled ' Petronii Arbitri satyri 
fragmenta ex libro quinto decimo et sexto decimo :' and begin thus ; 



154 DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 

Petronius. ' cum ' (and not ' num ' as in the printed copies) ' in alio genere 
furiarum declamatores inquietantur,' &c. After these fragments, 
which occupy twenty-one pages of the manuscript, we have a piece 
without title or mention of its author, which is TJie Supper of 
Trimalcio. It begins thus : ' Venerat jam tertius dies, id est, 
expectatio liberse ccense,' and ends with the following : ' nos 
occasionem opportunissimam nacti, Agamemnoni verba dedimus, 
raptimque tarn plane quam ex incendio fugimus.' This piece is 
complete by itself, and does not recur in the other extracts. Then 
follows the Moretum, attributed to Virgil, and afterwards the Phoenix 
of Claudian. The latter piece is in the character of the XVIIth 
century, while the rest of the manuscript is in that of the XVth." 
The publication of this fragment excited a great sensation among 
the learned, to great numbers of whom the original was submitted ; 
and by far the majority of the judges decided in favour of its 
antiquity. Strong as was this external evidence, the internal is 
yet more valuable ; since it is scarcely possible to conceive a forgery 
of this length, which would not, in some point or other, betray 
itself. Moreover, forgeries are always most common of those 
authors, fragments of whose writings are to be found in others, 
which thus appear to countenance the fraud. But of the writings 
of Petronius, only a few disjointed words and expressions have been 
preserved by other authors, and even those have not been copied 
into the manuscript, as they most probably would have been, were 
it not a genuine monument of antiquity. The very obscurities which 
pervade the work are such as might be expected, when we reflect 
that it is, avowedly, a very small portion, and that this is the only 
copy which has reached our hands. The difficulty of forging a 
work like the Satyricon will better appear, when it is considered 
that such attempts have been actually made. A Frenchman, named 
Nodot, pretended that the entire work of Petronius had been found 
at Belgrade, in the siege of that town in 1688. The forged manu- 
script was published ; but the contempt which it excited was no 
less universal than the consideration which was shown to the manu- 
script of Statilius. Another Frenchman, Lallemand, printed a 
pretended fragment, with notes and a translation, in 1800 ; but no 
scholar was deceived by it. 

Assuming therefore, what there seems good reason. to assume, 
that this work is a genuine, though corrupted, monument of 
antiquity ; the next subject for consideration will be the determi- 
nation of the author. It seems difficult to imagine how scholars 
could ever have adjudged this honour (if any it be) to any other 
than Petronius Arbiter, of whom Tacitus l gives the following 
singular account : " The days of Caius 2 Petronius were passed in 

1 Tac. Ann. xvi. 18. 
2 The prsenomen of this man seems not to have heen distinctly known ; there 



PETRONIUS. 155 

sleep ; his nights in the business and relaxations of life. As Petronius. 
others attain fame by exertion, so he acquired it by sloth ; nor was 
he, like most spendthrifts, considered a profligate debauchee, but 
rather an elaborate voluptuary. The more negligent and free were 
his conduct and discourses, the more agreeable was his simplicity 
regarded. When he was proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards 
consul, he showed himself vigorous and equal to business ; but, 
after this, returning to his vices, or his imitations of vice, he 
became one of the few intimates, and steward of the refinements, 1 
of Nero, who esteemed nothing elegant and polite, but what 
Petronius had previously approved. In this situation he incurred 
the jealousy of Tigellinus, who beheld in him a rival and a superior 
in the science of pleasure : and who, appealing to the cruelty of the 
prince, to which all his other vices were subservient, bribed a slave 
to report Petronius as the friend of Scevinus : then committing all 
his household to prison, effectually deprived him of a defence. It 
chanced that, at that time, the Emperor made an excursion into 
Campania, and advanced as far as Cumse, where Petronius lay, who 
resolved no longer to endure the suspense of hope and fear. He 
did not, however, have recourse to instantaneous death, but, 
opening his veins, bound them again from time to time. During 
this process he discoursed with his friends, but not on serious sub- 
jects, nor with any view to a reputation for fortitude ; and listened, 

1 not to discussions on the immortality of the soul and the opinions 
of philosophers, but to light songs and careless verses. Some of 
his slaves he emancipated, others he punished ; he walked abroad ; he 
took his rest ; that his death, although violent, might appear natural. 
Unlike the generality of the victims of Nero, he did not in his will 
flatter the prince, or Tigellinus, or any of the men in power ; but, 
having described the imperial debaucheries, with the names of those 

, who shared them, and every new variety of impurity, he sealed the do- 
cument, and sent it to Nero : taking care, however, to break the signet- 
ring, lest it should afterwards prove dangerous to the innocent." 
There is little ancient testimony beside this concerning Petronius ; 

] he is seldom referred to or quoted ; but it does not appear that 
more than one Petronius Arbiter was ever known to antiquity. 

j Nor is it, indeed, probable, since the name was, most likely, strictly 

is little doubt that he is intended by Pliny (lib. xxxvii. c. 2) in the following 
passage : " Titus Petronius, Consularis, tnoriturus, invidia Neronis principis, ut 
mensam ejus exhseredaret, trullam myrrhinam CCC. H.S. emptam fregit." 
Plutarch also, in his Treatise " irus hv ris Siaicpiveie rbu KoXatca rod cpiAov" 
names him Titus ; " 5/ H rovs aadorovs kclI iroAvreXels els fxiKpoXoylau Kal pvirapiap 
bveiUfacriv, wairep Nepuva Tiros Tlerpoovios." The Scholiast on Juvenal, how- 
;ever, terms him Publius. (Schol. in Juv. Sat. vi. 637.) 

1 "Arbiter elegantiarum," an expression easier to understand than translate, 
and which is well represented by the French Maitvc dcs menus plaisirs. From 
this circumstance Petronius derived his name of Arbiter, which at once identifies 
him. 



156 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Petronius. personal, as it denoted an office. If the work, therefore, now in 
our hands, be really the production of a Petronius Arbiter, there 
can be little difficulty in assigning his identity. The whole cast of 
the work is exactly what might be expected from a character like 
that described by Tacitus : extremely licentious, yet very elegant. 
The former part of this opinion will never be controverted : in the 
latter we are supported by the majority of scholars and critics ; 
although there have not been wanting those who have drawn argu- 
ments against the authority of the work from its barbarisms and 
false Latinity. But when it is considered that this author has come 
down to us in a very mutilated state, and chiefly on the faith of a 
single copy, we have reason to conclude that many of the solecisms 
and obscurities which disfigure the Batyricon are owing to these 
circumstances. Certain it is that the criticisms of Petronius evince 
a writer well acquainted, both by taste and study, with the 
principles of composition ; and for these he has obtained the 
distinguished honour of being placed in the shrine of Aristotle, 
Horace, and Longinus, by a critic unexcelled by any : 

Fancy and art in gay Petronius please : 

The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease. 1 

His poem, too, on the civil wars, written for the purpose of 
elucidating his critical principles, will bear an advantageous com- 
parison with Lucan, and proves him to have understood, as well as 
learned, the maxims and uses of literary criticism. Thus the style 
and subjects of the Satyricon confirm, alike the belief of its genuine- 
ness, and the arguments which assign the identity of its author. 

From what is recorded by Tacitus, it has been generally supposed 
that the document sent by Petronius to the emperor was no other 
than that of which we now possess a very small portion. But this 
opinion we cannot admit. For in the statement of Tacitus, 
Petronius exposed the prince's minions by name ; whereas all the 
names in the Batyricon are significant, and, by consequence, 
fictitious. And whatever may have been the indifference which 
marked the last days of Petronius, we cannot suppose that nature, 
under such circumstances, could have enabled him to compose a 
work in sixteen books, to which extent, as the manuscript informs 
us, the Satyricon actually reached. In the absence of data, we can 
assign to this work no object, nor can we very satisfactorily inves- 
tigate its main subject, so brief and unconnected are the portions 
which remain. It is, apparently, a romance ; but, whatever we 
are to consider it, perhaps there is no work of antiquity, the 
corruptions and imperfections of which are so little to be regretted. 

That the work was intituled Satyrica, and not Satyricon, appears 

1 Pope, Essay on Crit. 667. 



" ERAGMENTUM SATIRE IN NERONEM." 157 

the most probable supposition. Satyricon libri, when the distinction Petronius. 
of books was lost, easily became Satyricon. Eulgentius 1 mentions 
two works of Petronius, besides the Satyricon, called Euscius and 
Albucia. Concerning these we have no further information. 

Balzac, in his JEktretiens Zitteraires, (ep. 4, ch. iv.) first presented 
the world with thirty lines of a Satire from an ancient manuscript, 
which were thence copied by Burmann into his Anthologia, and 
have been generally considered genuine ; though Bernhardy, who 
speaks of them with a contempt not easily accounted for, 2 regards 
them as a forgery of their first editor. The only external evi- 
dence of any weight against these verses is Menage's edition of 
1 Balzac; in which, under the head " Ficta pro antiquis," occurs a 

: piece of seventy -four hexameters, intituled, " Indignatio in poetas 

'■ Neronianorum temporam, ad nobilissimum Sammauranwm Montau- 
serii Marcliionem, major is operis fragmmtwm." Among these 
verses are found the thirty now in question. The discovery of 
this edition caused Bahr to renounce his opinion of their antiquity ; 
" the remainder of the verses," he says, " are of that quality, 
that they can scarcely pass for an ancient production." 3 But 
the fact of the contrast between these portions of the poem is 
presumptive evidence that they are not by the same author : nor 
does there appear any reason why Balzac, if he wished to impose 

, on the literary world, did not at once assert the antiquity of the 
whole. He might very naturally, however, have amused himself 
with endeavouring to fill out the genuine fragment. The verses 

, are an animated and indignant survey of the court and policy of 
Nero ; and as they are not to be met with in many collections, 
and are eminently illustrative of the poetical character of the period, 
our readers may not be displeased to find them here : — 



Ergo famem miseram, aut epulis infusa venena. 
Et populum exsanguem, pinguesque in funus arnicos, 
Et molle imperii senium sub nomine pads, 
Et quodcunque illis nunc aurea dicitur setas, 
Marmoreseque canent lacrymosa ineendia Romae, 
Ut formosum aliquid, nigrae et solatia noctis ? 
Ergo re bene gesta, et leto matris ovantem, 
Maternisque canent cupidum concurrere Diris, 
Et Diras alias opponere, et anguibus angues, 
Atque novos gladios pej usque ostendere letum ? 
Sseva canent ? obsccena canent, foedosque byinenseos 
Uxoris pueri, Veneris monumenta nefandse ? 



1 De Cont. Virg. Item in Praef. lib. i. Mytbologicon. 

2 " Das ihm [Turnus] beigelegte trockne Fragmentum Satirce in Neronem 
konnte von ibm keine sonderlicbe Meinung erwecken." — Grundr. der Rom. Lit. 
Anm. 472. 

a Nacktrage u. Berichtungen zur Geschicht. d. Rom. Lit. § 138. 



158 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Nil Musas cecinisse pudet, nee nominis olim 
Virginei, famaeque juvat meminisse prioris. 
Ah ! pudor extinctus ! doctaeque (infamia !) turbae 
Sub titulo prostant ! et queis genus ab Jove summo, 
Res hominum supra evectae et nullius egentes, 
Asse merent vili, et sancto se corpore foedant ! 
Scilicet aut Menae faciles parere superbo, 
Aut nutu Polycleti, et parca, laude beatae, 
Usque adeo maculas ardent in fronte recentes, 
Hesternique Getas vincla et vestigia flagri. 
Quinetiam, patrem oblitae et cognata deorum 
Numina, et antiquum castas pietatis honorem, 
Prob ! furias et monstra colunt, impuraque turpis 
Fata vocant Titii mandata, et quicquid Olympi est 
Transcripsere Erebo ! Jamque irnpia ponere templa, 
Sacrilegasque audent aras, coeloque repulsos 
Quondam Terrigenas superis imponere regnis 
Qua licet : et stolido verbis illuditur orbi. 

Gaunt famine, banquet-board with poison rife, 

Wan vassals, minions fatted for the knife, 

Peace, (prostituted name for power grown old !) 

And all our hirelings call the Age of Gold, 

And marble Rome in tears and ashes laid, 

(Fair sight, and solace of nocturnal shade !) 

These in their lays shall venal bards parade? 

Flush'd with success of parricidal rage, 

Prompt with his mother's Furies to engage, 

Furies to Furies, snakes to snakes oppose, 

And blot with darker death the realm of woes, — 

Him shall they sing? — fierce crime, flagitious joy, 

The desecrated rite, the consort hoy ? — 

The Nine, forgetful of their virgin name 

And purity, regard no theme with shame : 

For shame is not. — Foul sight ! the learned band, 

High Jove's pure daughters, forth as harlots stand ; 

Powers above mortal needs and human things 

Sell for vile hire their brave imaginings : 

At Mena's frown, at Polycletus 1 nod, 

They hail the slave of yesterday a god : 

Love the raw brand that sears the brow with black, 

The chain, and scourge-mark fresh upon the back. 

Oblivious of their sire and race divine, 

And the old honours of their saintly line, 

Furies and monsters they adore ; and call 

Foul Titius' hideous mandates Fate ; and all 

Of heavenly birth to Erebus transpose ; 

Rear impious fanes, and altars dark as those : 

Raise Titans to the heaven whence gods are hurl'd ; 

And wordy nonsense gulls a doting world. 






As these lines are anonymous, it is impossible to appropriate 
them with any certainty. It has been supposed that they are a 
portion of a Satire written by Antistitjs Sosianus, for which 
that unfortunate man, as we learn from Tacitus, was condemned to 



JUVENAL. 



159 



death, which was commuted for banishment. 1 It seems, however, sosianus. 
extremely improbable that any writer, whatever his sentiments 
might be, should have avowed them so plainly, at a time when he 
must have been aware of the fatal tendency of his avowal. But 
although scarcely published under the dominion of Nero, there is a 
freshness about these verses which leads to a belief that they must 
have been the work of a contemporary. They are, moreover, 
evidently the production of satiric genius ; and Wernsdorf, there- 
fore, not altogether without probability, conjectures them to be the 
production of a celebrated satirist named Turnus, who lived under 
Nero, and some following emperors. This author, apparently, 
was born at Aurunca, the native place of the father of Eoman 
Satire; since the expression "magnus Aurunca alumnus ," which, 
with good reason, is usually understood of Lucilius, is interpreted, 
by the Scholiast on Juvenal, of Turnus. 2 Like Horace, he was Turnus. 
descended from a freedman ; and, like him also, he became powerful 
at court, under Titus and Domitian. He is mentioned in high 
terms by Martial, 3 and classed with Juvenal by Eutilius Numatianus, 
an author whom we shall presently notice. 4 Aurunca appears to 
have enjoyed an extraordinary fecundity of Satirists; for the 
Scholiast on Juvenal, in the passage cited 
above, mentions two others of this place, 
Lenius and Silius ; the former is, probably, 
the same with Lenseus, whom we have 
noticed before ; and of the latter we only 
know, on the authority of the Scholiast, 
that he was a contemporary of Juvenal, of 
whom we shall now proceed to record 
some particulars. 

The only authentic information which 
we possess respecting Decius Junius 
Juvenalis is to be derived from incidental 
passages in his own writings, and from a 
sketch, not to be dignified with the title of 
a " Life," from the pen of Suetonius or 
Probus. 3 In the common editions of this 




Juvenal. 



slight memoir no mention occurs of the 



Juvenal. 



place of Juvenal's birth ; but in the manu- 
script of Yossius, Aqidnum was assigned ; and this opinion derives 

1 Tac. Ann. xvi. 21. 2 Schol in Juv> Sat j o . 

3 Mart. vii. 97, and xi. 11. 4 Rutil# Num Iter# j 599> 

5 There are three other biographical pieces enumerated by Bahr (Gesch. der 
Rom. Lit. § 134, Anm. 2); one ascribed to JElius Donatus ; one by an anony- 
mous author, edited by Ruperti ; another, edited by Achaintre from a Bolognese 
MS. The last appears to be of very recent date. The Life by Suetonius or 
Probus, such as it is, is acknowledged by Bahr to be the main source of informa- 
tion. (Hauptquelle.) 



160 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Juvenal. probability from the Poet's own testimony. 1 The year of his birth 
was a. d. 59. 2 He was either the son or fosterchild of a rich 
freedman. Until he reached his middle age (ad medium fere tetutem) 
he amused himself with declaiming; less with a view to public 
objects than to the gratification of private taste. 3 The first occasion 
which exercised his satire is a disputed subject among critics, 
Whose opinions we shall not attempt to record, much less to 
examine, but prefer to consider what ancient testimony has left 
us. The following are the words of his biographer : " Having 
produced a satire of a few verses, not ill- written, on Paris, the 
poet and pantomime of Claudius Nero, and the conceited dispenser 
of the Emperor's dignities, 4 he thenceforward diligently cultivated 
that province of literature. At first, however, he did not venture to 
entrust his poems even to the smallest auditory. But, after a while, 
he recited several times before a crowded audience, and with great 
applause ; which induced him to transfer into his recent writings 
a passage which he had composed before : 

Seek'st thou the patronage of ancient lines ? 
The courts of Bareas, or of Camerines? 
In vain ! an actor now gives wealth, not they ; 
Power, office, rank, are prices of a play. 

The biographer then adds a few words, which comprise his whole 
history. " A player was at that time in favour at court, and 
many of his admirers were daily promoted : Juvenal, therefore, 
incurred suspicion as having covertly satirised the times ; (quusi 
tempora fgurute notdsset ;) and, although at the age of eighty 
years, was immediately removed from the city, under colour of an 
honourable promotion, and sent to command a cohort in the 
remotest districts of Egypt ; such a mode of punishment being 
considered best adapted to a light and jocular fault. In a very 
short time, however, he became a victim to weariness and 
melancholy." The chronology of Juvenal's life and writings is 
involved in considerable confusion ; which Professor Ramsay, of 
Glasgow, in his article "Juvenalis" in Smith's Dictionary of 
Classical Antiquities, has ably endeavoured to disentangle. To 
this, for more exact information, we refer our readers, presenting 
them here with the Professor's conclusion : " Without pretending to 
embrace the views of this [Pranke] or any previous critic to their 
full extent, we may safely assume a sceptical position, und doubt 

1 Sat. hi. 319. 2 Sat. xiii. 17. 3 Conf. Sat. i. 15. 

4 " Ejus semestribus militiolis tumentem." The allusion is to Juv. Sat. 
vii. 88. 

Ille et militice multis largitur honorem : 

Semestri vatum digitos circumligat auro. 

Paris invested with the dignity of six-monthly tribune, of which, see Plin. iv. 4. 



NERO. 161 

every 'point which has been usually assumed as true. The narratives Juvenal. 
contained in the different ancient biographies are so vague and 
indistinct that they could scarcely have proceeded from a contempo- 
rary, or from any one who drew his knowledge from a clear and 
copious source ; while the contradictory character of many of the 
statements, and the manifest blunders involved in others, prevent 
us from reposing any confidence in those particulars in which they 
agree, or are not confuted by external testimony." 

To enter on a critical survey of the works of Juvenal, and to 
compare them with those of Horace and Persius, would be worse 
than unnecessary here. It has been often done by the profoundest 
scholars and acutest critics, and seldom, perhaps, with much 
influence on individual opinion. Whatever be the relative value of 
the Satires of Juvenal, there never was a doubt on then absolute 
excellence. His YHth Satire, however, deserves our especial viith Satire. 
notice, as it professes to be a review of the state of literature at 
Borne, in which poetry naturally claims conspicuous regard. 

There is no decisive external evidence on the chronology of this state of 
Poem ; all that we know is, that it could not have been written JSature. 
earlier than the reign of Domitian, with the exception of the few 
lines quoted by the ancient biographer; but possibly it was not 
published till the time of Hadrian. That it was not altogether 
written under Domitian appears from an anecdote related in it of 
Statius, which took place in the reign of that prince ; and which is 
spoken of as evincing the ungenerous character of a policy exploded 
by a new and liberal monarch. The ruinous consequences of this 
policy to literature, especially to poetry, are depicted with 
declamatory, but pathetic, eloquence. Poets of reputation and 
popularity are represented applying for the most menial offices, and 
the Muse herself in the condition of a mendicant. We will inquire 
how far this representation is countenanced by history, in reverting 
to the period from which we have digressed, and taking a survey 
of the state of poetry during the turbulent reigns of Nero and his 
successors. With respect to the former, this has been in some 
measure already performed ; we shall here complete our observations 
on the subject. 

The taste which Nero exhibited for poetry was no less fatal to Nero. 
its interests at Kome than the barbarism and brutality of other 
princes. Nero, affecting the art himself, regarded all its professors 
with more or less jealousy. The example of Cornutus sufficiently 
shows the opinion which he entertained of his own poetical merits, 
and the danger of provoking the most distant comparisons. The 
quinquennial poetical contest instituted by this prince, which we 
have already noticed, might be supposed to have a beneficial 
tendency ; but, as the Emperor himself entered the arena, the result 
was certain. Competition involved personal danger ; and the only 

[R. L.] M 



162 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Nero. 



means of averting disastrous consequences were the meanest obse- 
quiousness and the profanest adulation. Of the character of the poetry 
produced by this institution, we may form a very tolerable notion 
from what is said in the verses ascribed to Turnus, which we have 
already given : for, even assuming these to be the forgery of Balzac, 




l£J 



Nero and Poppaea. 



they only describe what must necessarily have been the case. The 
prize poetry of the Neronian age was, doubtless, impious as there 
represented, and dull as those formidable " Gratulationes" of awful 
bulk, which a royal birth or marriage formerly elicited from our own 
Universities. The policy of Nero, therefore, was not less hostile 
to poetry in general than to political or personal satire. 

Neither is it probable that this prince himself afforded, to the 
Latin Muse those advantages which his jealousy forbade her to 
accept from others. She was, it is true, of a colder and severer 
temperament than her sisters in most nations, nor did she require 
from her votaries that ardent and impassioned devotion, without 
which it has been impossible for poets in other countries to succeed ; 
yet if she was too majestic and tranquil to be approached with 
unchastened warmth and irregular pathos, she was too pure for the 
worship of the fierce and cruel. As a poet, Nero is called doctus 
by Martial ; and, as far as concerns the mechanism of the art, such 
he probably was : the pupil of Seneca could scarcely have been 
other. But it was the common opinion, and as such is recorded 
by Tacitus, 1 that he received great assistance from others, whom he 
employed to versify his own ideas, as nearly in his own words as 
possible, and who sometimes supplied whole verses. The historian, 
who had seen his poems, confirms the probability of this belief by 
their internal evidence ; informing us that they were deficient in 

1 Ann. xiv. 16. 



NERO. 



163 



spirit and energy, as well as in singleness of style. Suetonius ' 
admits that such a report prevailed, but denies the truth of it, and 
affirms that he had seen the autograph of some of Nero's poems, 
which was so much blotted, dashed, and interlined, that it was, 
evidently, the result of meditation and labour. The common tra- 
dition, however, may still be true ; he might, as Suetonius asserts 
he did, have written verses with ease and fluency ; (an assertion, by 
the way, a little at variance with what this author tells us about 
the elaborate aspect of the autograph,) but it will not hence follow 
that he never employed the assistance of others. Considering the 
circumstances of the times, and the critical testimony of Tacitus, 
there is every reason to suppose that he did so. Concerning the 
subjects of Nero's poetry little can now be collected. He meditated 
a poem on the Koman History in four hundred books ; he com- 
pleted one on the Trojan History ; and from Pliny we learn that, in 
one of his poems, he had compared the tresses of his wife Poppsea 
to amber. 2 Suetonius 3 mentions also a satire by Nero called 
Lmcio, against Clodius Pollio, who seems to have richly deserved 
the castigation of a purer pen. A similar production, directed 
against Afranius Quinctiamis, a character equally infamous, is 



Nero. 




Baths of Jsiero. ■* 

mentioned by Tacitus. 5 The circumstance has not escaped the 
acumen of Juvenal. 6 

Y\ e may here mention, as poets of this reign, Evodus, called 

1 Suet. Nero, lii. 2 N at# jj ist xxxv jj 3, 3 Doiu. i. 

Quid Nerone pejus ? 
Quid thermis melius Neronianis ? — Martial. 
What could be worse than Nero, or better than his baths ? 

5 Ann. xv. 49. 6 Sat# iv 106 

in 2 



164 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Nero. 



Poetry 
under the 
Vespasians. 



by SuidaS " 6 6avfxa£6fievos els rrjv 'PaifxaiKrjv Troirjaiv," though not a 

line of his works existed in the time of the lexicographer ; 
Andromachus of Crete, a physician, who wrote a poem called 
Theriaca ; and Petricus, of the same profession, who composed a 
piece de Antidotis. 

The three succeeding princes, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, had 
neither leisure nor disposition to advance the interests of literature. 
The reigns of all together did not occupy two years, but their 
sanguinary and tumultuous characters 
were eminently pernicious to the arts 
and sentiments of peace. Vespasian 
endeavoured to counteract the evil con- 
sequences of the late commotions, and 
his policy was followed up by Titus, 
who was himself, as Suetonius informs 
us, a poet, and occasionally extemporised. 
Pliny also mentions a noble poem by 
him, called Acontia, on a meteor which 
appeared in his time. 1 Some idea may 
be formed of the condition of poets and 
poetry at this period, from the declaration 
of Suetonius with respect to the former 
Emperor: prastantes poetas . . . coemit!" 
the reading has been disputed, but the 
variations are rather attributable to the 
extraordinary assertion implied in the 
word, which has confounded transcribers, than to want of authority. 
Those who allow the reading interpret it " hired ; " but surely 
Suetonius would never have employed an expression unknown, 
perhaps, in this sense, to any other Latin author, when he had 
the natural and proper word " conduxit " at hand. The truth 
appears to be that such persons as had never devoted their 
attention to other than literary pursuits, were reduced by the 
exigency of the times to dispose of themselves as slaves. Nor 
will this appear improbable, when taken in connexion with the 
testimony of Juvenal : 2 

quum jam celebres notique po'ctce 
Balneolum Gabiis, Romse condi'cere fumos 
Tentarent ; nee fcedum alii nee turpe putarent 
Praecones fieri. 

When poets of high fame, for food and home, 
Hired baths at Gabii, bake-houses at Rome ; 
Nor thought it humbling to their proud renown, 
To act the crier through some paltry town. 




Hist. Nat. ii. 25. (i Prasclaro carmine.' 



Sat. vii. 3, seqq. 



SALE JUS BASSTJS. 

If such were the fate of admired and popular writers, we may 
well imagine what must have been the condition of inferior brethren 
of the lyre. 




Arch, of Titus. 



To the liberality of Yespasian, Salejtjs Bassus, a poet who has salens 
received high commendation from Quinctilian and the author of the 




Vespasian. 



Flaccus. 



166 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

dialogue Be Oratoribus, 1 and to whom the Carmen ad Pisonem is 
attributed by Wernsdorf, was indebted for the sum of five hundred 
Valerius sestertia ; and it was to this prince that Caius Valerius Flaccus 
dedicated his Argonautics, a poem which some critics consider 
inferior only to the JEneid? although it has reached us in a state of 
great corruption, and is recommended neither by originality, brilliancy 
of invention, nor melody of versification. Apollonius, Ovid, and 
Euripides, have all been laid under contribution to the production 
of the work, and the author cannot be denied the merit of having 
made them his own. The mythological machinery of Homer and 
Hesiod, which probably always had an esoteric sense, was borrowed, 
for the most part, in its literal acceptation, by the "Roman poets, 
who employed it either to aggrandise their patrons and families, or 
to gratify an appetite for the marvellous. Horace perceived this 
extravagant passion for supernatural agency, and prescribed a 
prudent rule for its limitation, 3 which succeeding poets little 
regarded, unless we may except Lucan, who preferred other 
methods of exciting surprise. To such an immoderate length is 
the interposition of deities carried by Valerius, that perhaps not 
an instance can be selected from his whole poem wherein an event 
occurs, or a design arises, unconnected with the operations or 
suggestions of the Court of Olympus. It is impossible to conceive 
a scene more ludicrous than that which Orpheus (of course, 
especially inspired by his mother,) recounts in the IVth Book, 
where Tisiphone pursues Io into Egypt, and Nile overwhelms the 
Eury in his waves, while her whips, torches, and serpents, strew the 
unpitying flood, and the ruthless goddess is seen imploring mercy, 
with her mouth half filled with water and sand. Jupiter, thundering 
above, completes the picture. The poem is imperfect : the succes- 
sion of Domitian probably interrupted a work begun under more 
favourable auspices. That the author did not survive the reign of 
this prince is evident from the remark of Quinctilian : 4 " multum in 
Valerio Macco nuper amisimus ; " an opinion perhaps less grounded 
on proved than on promised excellence, as he died young. Of the 
biography of this poet little can now be collected. The place of 
his birth has been disputed ; he is named in the manuscripts 
Setinus, which has been taken to mean a native of Setia, now Sezze, 
in Campania. But as he is called by Martial, 5 " Antenorei spes et 
alwmne Zaris," there is no doubt that he was at least educated at 
Padua ; and Setinus was, probably, a family name. Erom the same 

1 Quinct. x. 1. Dial, de Orat. 5, 9, and 10. 
2 Dominicus Marius, ad Ov. 1 Amor. xi. Casp. Barth. lvi. Adv. c. xi. 

3 Nee deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus 
Incident.— De Art. Poet. 191. 

4 x. 1. 5 1 Ep. lxxvii. 




DOMITIAN. 167 

writer we learn that Valerius did not find poetry a very lucrative 
profession. 

In the dedication of the Argonautics, Domitianus is mentioned Domitian and 
as capable of celebrating in verse the conquest of Jerusalem. lstunes - 
Whether such a work was ever under- 
taken, must now be matter of conjec- 
ture ; certain it is, however, that during 
the mild sway of his brother, he con- 
sulted his popularity by affecting the 
patronage and cultivation of poetry. 1 
The character which history has be- 
queathed us of Domitian will enable 
us to ascertain the value of his success 
far more correctly than all the prepos- 
terous adulation of his venal and 
cowardly contemporaries. It is melan- 
choly to see the great GLuinctilian, a 
spirit worthy " the most high and palmy 
state of Borne," attaching himself to 

this worse than despicable herd ; addressing the tyrant as the greatest, 
sublimest, most learned, and perfect of poets ; humouring his childish 
vaunt, that he was the son of Minerva ; and crowning the whole by 
representing his literary reputation only eclipsed by his resplendent 
virtues ! 2 We may lament over the terrible degradation which 
this infamous page of the great critic displays, but its preservation 
dispenses with all prolix commentary on the condition of the times. 

But the poetical taste which Domitian affected when a subject, 
and which proved a copious theme of contemporary adulation, 3 
was discarded when its motives ceased to operate. His speeches, 
letters, and decrees, were committed to the composition of secre- 
taries ; and his sole study was the life and papers of Tiberius. 4 In 
persecution of the liberal arts he rivalled the worst of his predeces- 
sors, the Caesars ; but, as poets were not eminently signalised on these 
occasions, we shall have less to observe on this part of his character. 
His expulsion of the philosophers from Eome, however, gave 

1 Suet. Dom. ii. Tacit. Hist. iv. 86. 
2 x. 1. Elsewhere, Quinctilian worships Domitian as a god, iii. 7; iv. prcef. 

3 Quin et Romuleos superabit voce nepotes, 
Queis erit eloquio partum decus ; huic sua Musse 
Sacra ferent, meliorque lyra, cui substitit Hebrus 
Et venit Rhodope, Phoebo miranda loquetur. 

Sil.Ital. Pim.nl 618. 

Tu, quern longe primum stupet Itala virtus, 



Graiaque ; cui gemina; florent, vatumque ducumque 
Certatirn laurus, &c. — Stat. A chill, i. 14. 

See also Martial, passim. 4 Suet. Dom. xx. 



168 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Sulpicia. 



Satire. 



Vopiscus. 



occasion to a very spirited and elegant satire, which is still extant, 
by a noble Roman lady, named Sulpicia. A distich of great 
point and truth is ascribed to the pen of the same lady also : 

Flavia gens, quantum tibi tertius abstulit haeres ! 
Poene fuit tanti non habuisse duos. 

O Flavian race ! 'twere almost worth the cost, 
Thy third to lose, thy others to have lost. 

She regarded with disgust and indignant purity the profligacy of 
the court and people, and is celebrated as a pattern of conjugal 
fidelity and affection, in praise of which she composed verses, which 
are highly applauded by Martial. They seem, however, to have 
been, at least, of a mixed character ; 1 and Ausonius openly calls 
them licentious. 2 By some scholars she has been confounded with 
the Sulpicia, whose elegiac correspondence with Cerinthus is 
attached to the works of Tibullus ; but the name of her husband 
was Calenus, and the learned are generally agreed in referring the 
former Sulpicia to the Augustan age. 

It does not appear that Sulpicia had any reason to repent her 
temerity ; yet it is matter of little surprise that Satire was not 
greatly cultivated during this period. Juvenal, it is true, had 
written : but his works, perhaps, never passed the most confidential 
circles in the reign of Domitian, since Quinctilian takes no notice 
of them : and Turnus, possessed already of Court patronage, most 
probably reposed on his laurels. Manlius Vopiscus indeed, a 
satirist of this period, w r as, if we are to believe his panegyrist 
Statius, a most versatile genius, and managed the lyres of Homer 
and Pindar with, equal facility ; 3 and Quinctilian, speaking of 
satirists, observes, " sunt clari Jwdieque, et quiolim nominabuntur"* 

Suetonius has remarked that the government of Domitian was 
characterised by an eccentric mixture of virtues and vices ; 5 an 
observation illustrated no less in his conduct with regard to 
literature than in other respects. His aversion to all liberal studies 
was sufficiently exemplified in his private habits, after his assump- 
tion of the purple rendered dissimulation unnecessary; and the 
tenour of his political conduct was perfectly consonant with his 
domestic manners. He, nevertheless, restored the libraries w 7 hich 
had perished by fire in the civil commotions, collected books from 
all quarters, and sent commissioners to Alexandria to transcribe 
the works preserved in that inestimable repository of learning. He 
instituted a quinquennial contest in honour of the Capitoline Jupiter, 

1 Cujus carmina qui bene sestimarit 
Nullam dixerit esse nequiorem : 
Nullam dixerit esse saiictiorem. — Mart. x. 35. 



2 In Epilog, ad Cent. Nuptialem. 
4 Inst. Orat. x. 1. 



3 1 Sylv. iii. 101. 
5 Dom. iii. 




STATIUS THE ELDEE. 169 

in which literary merit was disputed ; and he founded at Alba a vopiscus. 
College dedicated to Minerva, the members of which were obliged 
to celebrate the Quinquatria, which included dramatic entertainments 
and poetical contests. As he did not, like Nero, interfere in these 
competitions, their influence on poetry, though slight, was percep- 
tible. But little could be expected so long as there was no 
individual patronage. 

Contentus fama jaceat Lucanus in hortis 

Marmoreis. At Serrano, tenuique Salejo, 

Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria tantuni est ? * 

The cases of the Statii and Martial, however, have been instanced The statu, 
as exceptions to the ordinary policy of Domitian. We will examine 
this assertion in sketching their biography. 

Of the writings of P. Pafenius Statius the Elder nothing is statius the 
preserved, and our knowledge of their subjects and nature, as well Elder# 
as of their author's history, is derived to us from the monody of his 
son, which forms the 3rd Poem of the Vth Book of the Sylvce. 
Prom this we learn that he was of noble family, and that the 
honour of his nativity was contested by Naples and Selle ; by which 
latter place we can scarcely understand the town so named in 
Epirus, since it is represented by the poet as the scene of the death 
of Palinurus, which is placed by Virgil at Yelia. The ambiguity 
is to be ascribed to a silly emulation of the fate of Homer, a 
resemblance which, probably, never occurred to any except to the 
Statii themselves. Wherever he might have been born, he estab- 
lished himself early at Naples, where he frequently engaged in the 
quinquennial contest, and, apparently, always with success ; 2 nor 
was he less distinguished in the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian 
games. He opened a school at Naples, which he rapidly filled ; 
but there is no evidence that he ever came to Eome, although we 
are told by his son that he educated the children of the first 
families in the capital He died at the age of sixty-five. 

Concerning the subjects of the prize poetry of Statius it would 
be fruitless to conjecture. He had written a poem on the wars 
between the Yespasians and Yitellii, and contemplated another on 
the recent eruption of Yesuvius. His celebrity and excellence are 
certainly not to be estimated by the encomia of his panegyrist, who, 
independently of the influence of a sentiment more estimable than 
critical sagacity, was rarely a dispassionate judge of poetical merit. 

Speaking of this Statius, Maturautius, who is followed by 
Gyraldus, observes, 3 " summo lionore apud Domitianum habitus est, 
a quo etiam est auro donatus et corona, digno Principe erga 

1 Juv. Sat. vii. 79. See also Martial, viii. 56. 

2 Stat. 5 Svlv. iii. 138. 

3 In Achilleid. ; item Gyrald. de Poet. Hist. Dial. iv. 



170 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



The Statii. 



Statius the 
Younger. 



pejeceptorem munere." If Statius had received proofs so con- 
spicuous of the imperial favour, doubtless his son would have no 
less conspicuously published them. And, had he been the tutor of 
Domitian, none acquainted with the author of the Theha'id can doubt 
that such a circumstance would have been paraded with infinitely 
greater pomp than the less tangible favours of Apollo and all the 
Muses. Priests, chiefs, and statesmen, in all the splendour of 
poetic ornament, are depicted swelling the peaceful triumphs of his 
ferule, but not a syllable of the Emperor. If by the " crown " and 
" gold " of Maturantius, be meant the prize which Statius gained 
at Naples, it was in no sense the Emperor's present ; and if, by 
the phrases, " Hinc tibi vota patrum credi" l and 

Mox et Romuleam stirpem, proceresque futuros 
Instruis, 

Maturantius understood Domitian, it is certain that he made his 
statement on a very insufficient foundation. The education of this 
prince seems to have been entirely neglected, and his early years 
were passed in the most abject and sordid poverty. 2 We cannot, 
therefore, greatly rely on any story of Court patronage conferred 
on the elder Statius. 

Lucius Papinius Statius, son of the former, was bora, as 
Dodwell conjectures, a.d. 61, at Naples. Before the death of his 
father, he had distinguished himself as victor in the Neapolitan 
pottical games ; his first essay, however, in the Capitoline contest 
proved unsuccessful. Bat he soon retrieved his honour by three 
victories in the Alban Quinquatria, and, at length, by a conquest 
on the very theatre of his first reverse. 3 On one occasion he had 
the honour of being entertained at the Emperor's table, a distinction 
which he has not been backward to record. But the marks of 
imperial favour which are said to have procured him the envy of 
Martial, and of almost all his contemporaries, were insufficient to 
protect him from the most deplorable indigence, since it appears 
that he was obliged to sell his tragedy Agave for bread. 4 Little, 
therefore, can be pleaded here in favour of Domitian' s patronage of 
learned men. The faithful and affectionate wife of Statius, Claudia, 
whose love had given his successes a value not their own, was his 
best consolation in adversity. He appears to have retired with her 
to Naples, where, according to the computation of Dodwell, he died, 
a.d. 96, and at the early age of thirty-five. The story that he was 
killed by the Emperor with an iron stylus does not rest on any 
respectable authority. As little evidence exists for the tradition that 
he was a Christian. 



1 Stat. 5 Sylv. iii. 146. 

3 4 Sylv. ii. t>5, seqq. This 
is probable, and is adopted by Tiraboschi 

4 Juvenal, Sat. vii. 87. 



2 Suet. Dom. 1. 
not quite clear from the original passage, but it 



STATIUS THE YOUNGER. 171 

It is remarkable that Statius, although possessing a considerably statius the 
extensive literary acquaintance, is not mentioned by any contem- Youn ? er - 
porary author, except Juvenal ; even Quinctilian is silent concerning 
him. His merit is a point on which modern criticism is sufficiently 
discordant ; if, however, Juvenal speaks truly, his poetry, whether 
deservedly or not, was decidedly popular in his day. In his 
Thebaid, the work on which he has founded his reputation, he 
professes to follow, at a reverential distance, the footsteps of 
Virgil. 1 This is a rare acknowledgment for a post- Augustan poet ; 
how far it is confirmed by the internal evidence belongs not to us 
to decide. Yet we may remark that the confession is one of less 
than doubtful sincerity, since the poet, addressing his friend Junius 
Maximus, has the following passage : 

Quippe, te fido monitore, nostra 
Thebais, multa cruciata lima, 
Tentat audacifide Mantitance 
Gaudia famce. 2 

The composition of this poem occupied twelve years. It is sup- 
posed to have been modelled on the poem of Antimachus, as that 
of Valerius Flaccus was on the Argonautics of Apollonius. His 
Acliilleid, which, as he tells us, was designed as an exercise 
previous to a poem on the exploits of Domitian, 3 never reached the 
end of a second book. Some suppose that he drew Achilles after 
his friend Crispinus Bolanus, to whom he addressed the 2nd poem 
in the Vth Book of the Sylvce ; but this seems founded on a 
mistaken interpretation. 4 His Sylvce are a collection of two-and- 
thirty fugitive pieces, in five books, in various styles, and on 
different subjects; and, so far from receiving the elaborate polish 
which their author bestowed on his Thebaid, were, as we learn from 
their several dedications, for the most part composed in the greatest 
haste, and some almost extemporaneously. The 1st Book of these 
is dedicated to Aruntius Stella, of Padua, a poet of some steiia. 
celebrity, though none of his works have reached us. His principal 
reputation rests on a little piece called Columba, similar in style and 
subject to the Passer of Catullus, but superior, if we are to credit 
Martial, 5 to that beautiful little gem. He is said, however, to have 
written several other poems on the Sarmatian victories of Domitian, 
and on amatory subjects. 6 He had an awkward custom of 

1 xii. 810, seqq. 

2 4 Sylv. vii. Yet this poet, who hoped to rival Virgil, dared not attempt the 
praises of Lucan in his own metre ! Such is his own declaration : " Ego non 
potui majorem tanti auctoris habere reverentiam, quam quod, laudes ejus dicturus, 
hexametros meos timui ! " — Prcef. in lib. ii. Sylvarum. 

3 Achill. i. 19. 4 5 Sylv. ii. 164. 5 i. 8. 

6 Stat. 1 Sylv. ii. 95, et Hi coram. With Wernsdorf, we are unable to find 
any sufficient ancient authority for the assertions of Vossius and others, respecting 
these poems on the Sarmatian victories. 



172 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



steiia. compelling his guests to write verses ; to this we owe the poem on his 

marriage with Violantilla by Statius, which, as the author tells us, 
was completed in two days, and which contains two hundred and 
seventy-seven hexameters. Although there is as much interest and 
originality in this as in most Epithalamia, it is not impossible that 
it has been glanced at by Martial in the following epigram : 

Lege nimis dura convivam scribere versus 
Cogis, Stella ; licet scribere nempe malos. 1 

Statius was, probably, the object of the same author's spleen, under 
the name of Sabellus. Certain it is that wherever Martial has 
mentioned this name, it is with more than the allowed proportion 
of epigrammatic gall. The conjecture is derived from a comparison 
of the 20th Epigram of his IXth Book with the poem by Statius 
on the baths of Etruscus. But it is time to say something on 
Martial himself. 
Martial. Marcus Valerius Martialis (and, as some more recent 

authors add, Coquus, 2 ) was born 
at Bilbilis, now Calatajud, in Spain, 
a.d.43, and educated at Calagurris, 
now Calahorra, in the same country. 
His father's name is thought to 
have been Eronto, and his mother's 
Elaccilla. But this seems a mis- 
taken interpretation of the 34th 
Epigram of the Vth Book. These 
were, more probably, the parents of 
Erotion. At the age of twenty-one, 
during Nero's reign, he came to 
Eome, to complete his education 
for the bar ; where his epigrammatic 
talents afterwards procured him 
high reputation, in the reigns of 
Titus and Domitian. The same 
motives which actuated the latter prince in dissembling his aver- 
sion for liberal studies during the life of his brother, appear to 
have had some influence, wherever a comparison could occur 
advantageous to the memory of his regretted predecessor. Thus 
the honours which Martial enjoyed at the hands of Domitian were, 
perhaps, really ascribable to the patronage of Titus. Certain it is 
that he possessed the "jus trlum liberorum;" that he held the office 
of a tribune, and the dignity of a knight; and that he had a 

i ix. 91. 
2 Lamprid. Sever. 38. ; Joann. Sarisbriens. 6, iii. Vincent. Bellov. Spec. 
Doctr. iii. 17. But tbe true reading in Lampridius is perhaps coce, i.e. quoque. 
The other writers have copied the corruption. 




Martial. 



MARTIAL. 173 

country residence at Momentum. But these advantages appear to Martial, 
have been more specious than substantial, as he existed in a state 
of great poverty. 1 After a residence of thirty-five years in the 
capital, finding little encouragement at the court of Trajan, he 
resolved to return to his own country, for which purpose he was 
assisted with money by Pliny the younger, to whose vanity he had 
judiciously appealed, and who took good care not to conceal the 
obligation. 2 Here he married a rich lady, named Claudia Marcella. 
Whatever favours he may have enjoyed from the imperial hand, 
they were certainly not sufficient to prevent him from reproaching, 
when dead, the monster whom, living, his prostituted pen had 
exalted to the rank of the gods. His opinion of the encouragement 
afforded to learning at this time may be clearly collected from 
several epigrams written during the life of his patron. In addressing 
one Sextus, who, it seems, was anxious to advance himself at Borne 
by poetry, he is equally undisguised and discouraging : 

Insanis ! omnes gelidis quicumque lacernis 
Sunt tibi, Nasones Yirgiliosque vides. 3 

Thou ravest ! mark those ragged cloaks and old — 
Thy Ovids and thy Virgils there behold. 

And to the celebrated Valerius Flaccus he writes : 

Pierios differ cantusque chorosque sororum : 
j£s dabit ex istis nulla puella tibi. 4 

Off with the Nine, their tuneful choirs and strains ! 
No lass of them will pay thee for thy pains. 

The whole epigram is well worth reading. It does not appear that 
he enjoyed at Bilbilis the repose which he anticipated ; assailed by 
the stupidity and envy of his countrymen, he shortly after yielded 
to fate. The exact date of his death is uncertain ; it was not later 
than a. D. 104. 

The works of Martial now extant are wholly epigrammatic ; 
twelve books consist of regular epigrams on miscellaneous subjects ; 
one book is called Spectacula, 5 and alludes to the exhibitions of 
Titus and Domitian ; another has the title of Xenia, and, with a 
few introductory exceptions, consists entirely of distichs, each 
describing some article of ornament or luxury, which it was the 
custom of friends to send to each other on festal occasions. A 
third book is entitled AjoopJioreta, also composed of distichs, cele- 
brating the presents usually given to guests to be carried home at 
the Saturnalia. Whether we possess all his writings is uncertain. 

] xi. 4, et passim. 2 pii n . lib. hi. e p. ult. 

s iii. 38. « i. 77. 

5 The title is one of usage and convenience, but appears in no MS. Bahr. 
Gesch. der Rom. Lit., § 185. 



174 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 



Martial. 



Canitis. 

Theophila. 

Deciauus. 

Licianus. 



Parthenius. 
Varus. 



Silius 
Itaiicus. 



No poet was ever more extensively acquainted with his brethren 
of the lyre than Martial ; and it is not a little remarkable, when 
the state of the period is considered, that this fraternity should 
have been as numerous as it was. We will mention the principal 
names of the poets preserved in his epigrams, annexing such 
illustrations as ancient notices afford us. 

Canius Eufus, of Cadiz, was, as is to be inferred from Martial, 1 
a very versatile poet, who found himself at home in epic, elegiac, 
comedy, and tragedy. On the same authority, his wife Theophila 
was in no respect inferior to Sappho. 2 Decianus and Licianus 
were both natives of the Peninsula, and therefore not forgotten by 
Martial in his brief catalogue of illustrious authors ; 3 the former 
being of Merida in Portugal, and the other a fellow townsman of 
the epigrammatist himself. Parthenius, the chamberlain of 
Domitian, is frequently mentioned with commendation. 4 Varus, 
like the Cassius of Horace, wrote two hundred lines every day. 5 
Such are the very scanty particulars which subsist concerning these 
poets, which we have recorded rather with a view to method than 
for the sake of any very conspicuous advantage derivable from the 
transcription of such names. The catalogue might easily be en- 
larged, especially if the names of those poets who have been censured, 
as well as commended, by Martial, were to be allowed a niche in 
our Biography. But we willingly resign the task of constellating 
these luminaries to Fabricius and his editors, who have performed 
it with a patience, as well as a diligence, truly admirable. The 
learned but incorrect Gyraldus has made a similar assemblage. 

Some names, however, there are which must not be so lightly 
dismissed. The most conspicuous of these is Silius Italicus, 
author of the Pimica. This poet was born about a. d. 25 ; and is 
by some referred to the age of Nero, in the last year of whose 
government he was consul ; but as his poem, so early as the Hid 
Book, mentions Domitian as sovereign, he will most conveniently 
be noticed here. The place of his nativity has never been settled. 
He has been claimed by the Spaniards as a native of their town 
Italica, and by the Italians for a similar reason, as born at 
Corfinium, called Italica in the Marsian war. But it is probable 
that he derived his name from neither of these places, as, according 
to the unanswerable argument of Stephens, Yossius, and other 
eminent scholars, the analogy in this case would have given us 
Italicensis and not Italicus. 6 That he was not a Spaniard may 
very fairly be inferred from the omission of his name by Martial, 
wherever the poetical worthies of Spain are celebrated ; although 



i iii. 20. 2 vii. 68. 3 i. 42. 

4 ii. 1 ; iv. 45 ; v. 6 ; viii. 28. 5 viii. 20. 

6 See also Aul. Gell. xvi. 13, and Gruter, Tnscrip. i. p. 385. 



SILIUS ITALICUS. PLINY THE YOUNGER. 175 

he is frequently mentioned by this poet with high commendation. 1 Silius 
"Wherever he may have been born, his usual residence was at Itallcus ' 
Naples, where he possessed an estate. In the time of Nero he had 
the reputation of an informer; but he afterwards retrieved his 
character, by his mild and prudent conduct in the friendship of 
Vitellius, his honourable demeanour in the proconsulship of Asia, 
and his peaceable and dignified employment of the hours of leisure. 
When his age allowed him the privilege of a respite from senatorial 
cares, he withdrew to his Campanian retirement, from which not 
even the accession of Trajan had power to excite him. An incurable 
disease of the eye induced him to terminate his life by starvation, 
at the age of seventy-five, about a. d. 100. 

The character of Silius is that of a virtuoso, and is completely a 
counterpart of Pope's Timon. Erat fyikoKakos usque ad emacitatis 
repreliensionem? He shifted from villa to villa, with a view of 
improving the elegance of his abode ; he had a fine library, and a 
fine collection of statues. He purchased the estate of Cicero, to 
whose writings he was particularly partial, and paid honours to the 
memories of both him and Virgil, whose sepulchre at Naples he 
had purchased. In consequence, Martial equals him with the 
latter; at least, if one reading be correct, in the 51st Epigram of 
his Xlth Book. He seems, however, to have inherited a very 
small portion of the spirit of either ; and all his readers will 
acquiesce in the judgment of Pliny, scrihebat carmina majore curd 
quam ingenio. 

The biographer of Silius (for so we may term Caitjs Plenius Pliny the 
C-ECiLius Secundtjs, since it is by his pen that the most numerous Youn ? er - 
and authentic particulars on this subject have been perpetuated) 
must not pass wholly unnoticed in this place, 3 not only as a person 
whose addiction to literature has procured us information on the 
state of poetry in his day, but as also a poet himself. Of this 
talent, as indeed of all his other universal attainments, he frequently 
informs us. 4 "When he was only fourteen years of age he composed 
a Greek tragedy. When detained in Icaria by unfavourable winds, 
this island became the subject of his muse, and forth came a volume 
of Latin Elegies. He then made trial of heroics ; and, last of all, 
he produced his hendecasyllabics, of which he talks perpetually. 
It was not immediately that he discovered how so undignified a 
metre could be made to comport with that which the world, of 
course, expected from a Pliny. Eortunately, however, he stumbled 
on an epigram by Cicero, which put him on reflecting that many 

1 iv. 14 ; vii. 62. ~ Plin. lib. iii. ep. 7. 

3 A biographical sketch of Pliny (who belongs rather to prose than poetry) 
will be found in Dr. Arnold's paper in this volume, on the literature of Trajan's 
time. 

4 Plin. i. 13 ; iv. 6, 14; v. 3, 10, 11, et pncsertlm, vii. 4. 



176 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Plinius 
Secundus. 



Voconius. 



illustrious orators had amused themselves in a similar manner. No 
sooner did he ascertain such to have been the ordinary practice of 
eminent literary men, than he set to work in good earnest, and 
produced a volume of hendecasyllabics, some of which, so far as 
he leads us to conjecture, appear to have been somewhat coarsely 
seasoned, in order to invite comparison with Catullus. The occa- 
sion which led to the formation of this work, he has thought right 
to record in verse as well as prose. We shall not burden the 
reader with the whole passage, which, though short, is sufficiently 
tedious; part, however, may not be unacceptable as an efficient 
consolation for the ravages of time. 

Quum libros Galli legerem, quibus ille parenti 
Ausus de Cicerone dare palinamque decusque, 
Lascivum inveni lusum Ciceronis, et illo 
Spectandum ingenio, quo seria condidit, et quo 
Humanis salibus multo varioque lepore 
Magnorum ostendit mentes gaudere virorum. 

These verses, which their author evidently considered choice, 
sufficiently prove that he was ignorant of the commonest technical- 
ities of versification, and stand forth conspicuous on the exquisitely 
smooth and polished texture of his prose, like the island rocks from 
the surface of the still and limpid iEgean. The mind of Pliny 
was by no means cast in a poetical mould. He wrote verses 
because he conceived it necessary to his literary reputation; an 
idol to which he sacrificed every other passion and prejudice. 
What, however, must be our opinion of the poet who could prefer 
the perusal of Livy to the spectacle of Vesuvius in eruption ? 1 
and, still more, who could hope by this avowal to excite the 
admiration of Tacitus ? 

But though Pliny is certainly not entitled to the highest honours 
of the Latin Parnassus, to him we are indebted for information 
regarding several poets, whose familiarity he possessed or courted : 
for such was his ambition of a literary immortality, that he made 
the acquaintance of every literary aspirant in Italy, and has taken 
especial pains to inform the world of the fact. His friends were 
not equally generous in return, and seemed, for the most part, 
insensible of the great honour and distinction which they were 
enjoying. The testimony of Pliny, however, as we have had 
previous occasion to observe, must always be taken with some 
qualification. He was a trader in praise ; and his commendations 
were, in general, either speculations or payments ; in the latter he 
was liberal, and in the former, adventurous. 

This remark premised, we will first proceed to notice Voconius 
Eomanus, who occupies a conspicuous station among the friends 



1 vi. 20. 



pliny's poetical feiends. 177 

and correspondents of Pliny ; several biographical particulars of voconius. 
this writer are recorded in the XHIth Epistle of his Ilnd Book. 
The Emperor Hadrian, according to Apulejus, ordered this line to 
be engraven on his tomb : 

Lascivus versu, mente pudicus erat. 

If this account were correct, the modest Nine were not always so 
select in their expressions as might be hoped and expected from 
ladies of their station and character; for Pliny affirms that his 
language was like the Muses themselves composing in Latin. 1 Eut 
if he were the same mentioned by Martial, (lib. vii. ep. 28,) under 
the name of Yoconius Yictor, as he is generally supposed to have 
been, he did not deserve even the sorry reservation of his Imperial 
apologist. Passienus Paulltjs, a Koman knight, is recommended Pauiius. 
to our notice and interest as the countryman and lineal descendant 
of Propertius, and his disciple in the school of elegiac poetry. He 
was afterwards an imitator of the lyrics of Horace. Pompeius Pompeius 
Satueninus was a genius of that universal character which apper- 
tained, by Pliny's account, to many more of his friends ; we are, 
however, here concerned with his verses alone, of which this 
writer gives us the following description: "Eacit versus, quales 
Catullus meus aut Calvus. — Quantum illis leporis, dulcedinis, 
amaritudinis, amoris inserit ! sane data opera molliusculos, levius- 
culosque, duriusculos quosdam : et hoc, quasi Catullus meus aut 
Calvus. 2 Another poetical prodigy, Octavius, is addressed in the Octavius. 
Xth Epistle of the Hd Book. Akrius Antoninus wrote Attic Amus. 
Greek better than the Athenians themselves ; 3 but his epigrams were 
but indifferently translated by Secundus. 4 That the praises of secundus. 
Sentius Augumnus should have filled an entire letter will seem sentius 
nothing wonderful, when we read the following verses from his pen. Au ? urmus - 

Canto carmina versibus minutis 

His, olim quibus et meus Catullus, 

Et Calvus, veteresque : sed quid ad me ? 

Unus Plinius est mihi ! priores 

Mavult versiculos, foro relicto, 

Et quaerit quod amet, putatque amari. 

Ille Plinius, ille ! Quid Catones ? 

I nunc, qui sapias, amare noli ! 

Titinius Capito celebrated the actions of eminent men. 5 Apol- Capito. 
linaris is also mentioned by Pliny and Martial in terms of respect, A P° Uinans - 
although, from the prevalence of the name, it is not quite certain 

1 Epistolas qnidem scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas. 

2 i. 16. 

3 iv. 3. Non medius fidius ipsas Athenas tarn Atticas dixerim. 

4 v. 10. 5 i. 17. 

[ R. L.] N 



178 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Bruttianus. 



that they allude to the same person. We scarcely know whether 
we are justified in enrolling on our list Lustricus Bruttianus, 
since he appears to have written in Greek only; but that his 
epigrammatic powers were not trivial, we may fairly conclude from 
the prayer of Martial to Thalia, that she would allow him, provided 
Bruttianus condescended to epigrammatize in Latin, to occupy the 
second place. Martial, like his friend Pliny, was prodigal of his 
panegyrics ; but none acquainted with his character can doubt his 
sincerity here. It was the fashion of that age, still more than that 
of the Augustan, to imitate the heroes of the brief but pointed 
anecdote of Horace : 






Review of 
the Flavian 
age. 



Frater erat Romae consulti rhetor, ut alter 
Alterius sermone meros audiret honores ; 
Gracchus ut hie illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille. 1 

Hence authors have appeared ridiculous in the eyes of posterity, 
who, probably, but for these extravagant eulogies, might have 
attained a respectable situation on the records of fame. It has 
been often observed that Pico Mirandola, whose vaunting epitaph 
extends his glory to the Antipodes, is scarcely known beyond the 
limits of Europe ; and thus Lucius, who is termed by Martial 
" the glory of his time," 2 and who is, without scruple, equalled 
with Horace, is only a shadow and a name : and IJnicus, who 
yielded in the poetic art to his brother only, 3 is now his rival in 
obscurity alone. One of the most pleasing pictures which the 
elegant pen of Pliny has drawn for us is what might be called the 
Old Man's Day, the description of a day with his friend Vestri- 
tius Spurinna, who seems to have spent his time in a manner at 
once amiable and dignified, and who, we there learn, wrote lyrics 
with wonderful beauty, sweetness, and gaiety. 4 

The advocates of Domitian's liberality in the encouragement of 
learning certainly possess an apparent advantage in the imposing 
array of poetical names which the writers of that period supply 
enough, however, appears to have been advanced to prove that, 
whatever may have been the cause, it cannot reasonably be sought 
in the spirit of the Imperial Government. Were any further 
argument on this subject necessary, we might appeal again to Pliny, 
who, while he informs us that in one year scarcely a day in the 
month of April passed without a poetical recitation, 5 at the same 
time laments the scantiness of the auditory, and commends the 
poets for their resolute contempt of an idle or disdainful public. 
The most satisfactory explication of the whole phenomenon is the 
impulse afforded to poetical studies by the munificence of the 



1 Hor. ii. ep. ii. 87 
:i Mart. xii. 43. 



Mart. 



iv. 55. 
5 i. i; 



NERVA. TRAJAN. 



179 



Vespasians. The whole reign of Domitian extended only to fifteen Review of 
years ; a period insufficient to extinguish the hopes, and annul the ag | t 
ambition, of those who had experienced or witnessed the effects of a 
patronage truly princely and worthy the sovereigns of the world. 
We shall not find that the succession of a confessedly happier reign 
procured for the Muse those advantages which a more tyrannical 
system denied. The same hopes and the same objects were no 
longer extended ; and Genius passed from disappointment to decay. 

The mild and benignant character of the Government of Nerva Nerva. 
promised a favourable opportunity 
for the development and prosecution 
of the arts and studies of peace ; 
but the brevity of his reign, which 
little exceeded a twelvemonth, frus- 
trated his benevolent designs. Nerva 
was himself a poet; Pliny the younger 
excuses his own light poetry by his 
example ; l a circumstance which 
acquaints us with the character of 
his writings. Nero, as appears from 
Martial, 2 complimented Nerva with 
the title of " the Tibullus of his 
age ; " and although the eulogy 
either of Martial or Nero is no very 
irrefragable proof of real merit, this 
circumstance is not valueless, inasmuch as it affords us certainty that 
the works of Nerva were elegiac. Martial 3 mentions his modesty, 
and reluctance to publish ; qualities which perfectly harmonize with 
all that we know of the character of Nerva. 

If Juvenal, in his Vllth Satire, speaks (as many, not without Reign of 
probability, suppose) of Trajan, we must regard that prince not rajan * 
only as a liberal rewarder of poetical merit, but as a diligent inves- 
tigator of worthy objects for his patronage. "We have, however, 
before observed that Hadrian is not improbably the " Caesar " of 
this poem. But little reliance can be placed on the historical 
fidelity of a poet addressing a prince on whom all his hopes and 
objects depended. Enough has been already said on the character 
of all similar testimony from the pen of Pliny the Younger. The 
following passage, however, is striking, especially as it displays the 
view which a contemporary took of the policy of Domitian in this 
respect : " How honourably," says Pliny to Trajan, " dost thou 
regard the preceptors of eloquence ! what reverence dost thou 
entertain for the teachers of wisdom ! How have liberal studies, 
beneath thy auspices, recovered their animation, their life-blood, 




Nerva. 



1 Plin. v. 3. 



- viii. 70; ix. 27 



Ubi supni 
H 2 



180 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Keiprn of and their liome ! studies which the barbarism of past days punished 
Trajan. with banishment, when a prince whose conscience condemned him of every 

enormity, drove into exile all intellectual pursuits, well knowing their 
hostility to vice, and influenced not more by hatred than by dread of 
them. But thou hast granted these pursuits thy embraces, thine eyes, 
and thine ears ; for thou performest what they suggest, and lovest 
them no less than they witness thine excellence." l " It is sincerely to 
be lamented," observes Gibbon, " that, whilst we are fatigued with 
the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced 
to collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of an abridge- 
ment, or the doubtful light of a panegyric." 2 There can be little 
doubt that a disposition to value and advance the studies of civil- 
ization accompanied the good sense and benevolence of Trajan ; 
much, however, as has been said on the subject of his literary 
patronage, it will be vain to trace it in its effects. Most of the 
poets (for it is with them alone that we are here concerned) who 
adorned his reign of twenty years, had already published under 
his predecessors ; Juvenal is the only conspicuous writer of this 
description who may be considered an exception ; and even he had 
written before. Two causes will sufficiently explain this paradox ; 
the example of the prince, and the indolence of the rich. The 
patronage of Trajan was afforded to literature in general, less from 
an abstract love of the object, than from a conviction of its political 
advantages, which, in the case of poetry, are certainly unobtrusive, 
and by some philosophers and legislators have been regarded as 
doubtful. This monarch was no poet himself, and the first incite- 
ment to poetical ambition was consequently wanting. Neither did 
the wealthy and influential portion of the citizens second, as far as 
it went, the good example of their head ; and poets, weary of 
protracted neglect, sank around in despondency and silence. 3 
Juvenal and Martial, we know, experienced in this reign the 

1 " Quern honorem dicendi magistris, quam dignationem sapientise doctoribus 
habes ! ut sub te spiritum, et sanguinem, et patriam, receperunt studia ! quce 
priorum temporum immanitas exsiliis puniebat, quum sibi vitiorum omnium 
conscius Princeps inimicas vitiis artes, non odio magis quam reverentia, 
relegaret. At tu easdem artes in complexu, oculis, auribus habes : praestas enim 
qusecunque prsecipiunt, tantumque eas diligis, quantum ab illis probaris." — Plin. 
Paneg. xlvii. 

2 Rom. Emp. eh. iii. 

3 Ingenium sacri miraris abesse Maronis, 
Nee quenquam tanta bella sonare tuba. 
Sint Msecenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones, 
Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt. 

Mart. viii. 66. 

Quis tibi Maecenas, quis nunc erit, aut Proculejus, 
Aut Fabius? quis Cotta iterum ? quis Lentulus alter? 

Juv. Sat. vii. v. 94. 



HADRIAN. 



181 



bitterest discouragement : indeed it is impossible that the incessant 
projects of aggrandizement which occupied the mind of Trajan 
could allow him, however inclined, to bestow any efficient culture 
on the arts and studies of peace and leisure. The Capitoline 
poetical contest, it appears, was continued. We are indebted to an 
inscription still preserved in the town of Guasto, formerly Histoniwn, 
for a very interesting anecdote of a juvenile poet, whose genius 
was excited and rewarded by this institution. From this it appears 
that Lucres Valerius Pudens, a boy of that place, only thirteen Valerius 
years of age, was crowned victor in the Capitol, a.d. 106, by the Pudens - 
unanimous suffrage of the judges. A statue of brass was erected 
to him by his countrymen in the time of Antoninus Pius. Without 
detracting in any degree from the honourable and meritorious 
distinction of the youthful adventurer, we may be permitted to 
observe that his success affords a presumption, either that the 
competitors were few or indifferent, or that the honour itself was 
slightly regarded. 

The character of Hadrian has been drawn so correctly, so Hadrian, 
forcibly, and at the same time so compendiously, by his biographer, 
JElius Spartianus, that the words 
of this author will be the best 
possible comment we can supply 
on the effects of his accession. 
" Idem severus, hetus ; comis, 
gravis ; lascivus, cunctator ; tenax, 
liberalise simulator, s£evus,clemens; 
et semper in omnibus varius." x 
Prom the influence of a mind so 
perversely constituted no perma- 
nent or substantial advantages 
could be expected to accrue to 
any department of literature. Yet 
was Hadrian a man of great accom- 
plishments, and a poet ; his pieces 
were, for the most part, amatory ; 
and he wrote a poem called 

Catacriani, which, as we learn from his biographer, was extremely 
obscure, 2 and the title of which, notwithstanding the attempts of 
scholars to make it significant, is now become no less mysterious 
than its contents. This work was an imitation of Antimachus, a 
poet for whom he entertained a very high admiration, and whom 
he preferred to Homer, as he did Ennius to Yirgil. He endeavoured 
to revive the acted drama ; and for this purpose granted the services 
of the court actors to the public. 3 He was liberal of rewards and 




C. 14. 



- Ibid. 16. 



3 Ml Spart. 19. 



182 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Hadrian. honours to literary professors ; but these afforded small encourage- 
ment to merit, so long as he treated their owners with ridicule, 
contempt, and indignity, on the ground of his own superior attain- 
ments. Indeed, literary pursuits and professions of all kinds were 
not more safe than honourable ; for the Emperor, in order to pamper 
his own vanity, and mortify the self-complacency of authors, would 
often publish rival compositions, the superiority of which it would 
have been the most reckless imprudence to deny. Thus Eavorinus, 
being reprehended for the introduction of a word which he afterwards 
removed, replied to his friends, who reproached him for his obsequi- 
ousness, " You advise me ill, if you wish me to doubt the superior 
learning of one who has thirty legions at command." l A poet 
named Florus, however, was less circumspect, and addressed to the 
Emperor the following lines : 

Ego nolo Caesar esse, 
Ambulare per Britannos, 
Scythicas pati pruinas. 

Hadrian chanced to read the verses in good humour, and took 
no other revenge than a prompt repayment, together with similar 
interest : 

Ego nolo Florus esse, 
Ambulare per tabernas, 
Latitare per popinas, 
Culices pati rotundos. 2 

But the experiment was dangerous, and, probably, solitary, to say 
nothing of its bad taste and want of decent courtesy. The anec- 
dote, if authentic, which there is no reason to doubt, furnishes a 
curious illustration of the literary relations of prince and people at 
the time. 

There is still extant an Epitaph by Hadrian on his horse 
Borysthenes, which has been edited as follows by Salmasius after 
Casaubon, 3 and which is illustrative of his style and versification. 

Borysthenes Alanus 
Caesareus veredus, 
Per sequor et paludes 
Et tumulos Etruscos 
Volare qui solebat, 
Pannonios nee ullus 
Apros eum insequentem, 
Dente aper albicanti 
Ausus fuit nocere, 
Vel extimam saliva 
Sparsit ab ore caudam, 
Ut solet evenire : 



i C. 15. 2 Ubi supra. 

3 Vide utriusque notas ad Ml. Spart. Hadr. 



HADBJAN. 183 

Sed integer juventa, Hadrian. 

Inviolatus artus, 
Die sua peremtus 
Hie situs est in agro. 

Borysthenes, the Alanian, 
Imperial Csesai ,r s hunter, 
O'er champaign and o'er moorland, 
And o'er Etruscan hillocks, 
That used to fly so lightly, — 
Pannonian boars when chasing 
Whom never boar might venture 
With tooth of polished whiteness 
To gash as he swept past him, 
Or with his foam to sprinkle 
One tail-hair of the courser, 
As chances oft to happen, — 
In prime of youth and beauty, 
With every limb unblemished, 
On his own day departing, 
Beneath this turf reposes. 

A more celebrated piece of Hadrian's is his address to his depart- 
ing soul, the popularity of which is not easily accounted for ; though, 
as a painful illustration of heathen darkness and misgiving at the 
most solemn of anticipations, it is far from valueless : 

Animula, vagula, blandula, 
Hospes comesque corporis, 
Quae nunc abibis in loca, 
Pallidula, rigida, nudula ? 
Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos. 

Poor soul of mine ! poor fluttering thing ! 

This body's mate and guest ! 
Ah, whither art thou hastening, 
All pallid, stark, and shivering ? 

Nor fain, as erst, to jest? 

The adopted successor of Hadrian, L. Cejonius Commodus, Miua Verus. 
called by him tElius Verus Cesar, was a great admirer of poetry, 
and a poet. The character of his poetry may best be collected 
from his favourite authors. Ovid and Appius were the companions 
of his pillow, and Martial he styled his Virgil. 1 His son, the 
Emperor Verus, was also a poet, although far from eminent. 2 Verus 

It might be supposed that, beneath the tranquil and beneficent Antonius. 
sway of the Antonines, the Latin Muse, though already feeble and Age of the 
expiring, might have rallied her exhausted energies, and stood Antonines. 

1 vEl. Spart. Vit. Ml. v. 
2 ee Melior quidem Orator fuisse dicitur quam Poeta : imd (ut vends dicam) pejor 
Poeta quam Rhetor." — Julii Capit. Verus. Imp. ii. 



Aee of the 
Antonines. 



184 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



forth again to the world in the perfect beauty and chaste propor- 
tion of her Augustan maturity. "The love of letters, almost 




Antoninus Augustus Pius. 

inseparable from peace and refinement, was fashionable among the 
subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men 
of learning and curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent 
of their empire ; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired 
a taste for Ehetoric ; Homer, as well as Virgil, was transcribed 
and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube ; and the most 
liberal rewards sought out the faintest glimmerings of literary 
merit." 1 Yet, in the words of the great historian to whom we are 
indebted for the above picturesque glance at the literary condition 
of this period, " the name Poet was almost forgotten ; " " while a 
cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face 
of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the 
corruption of taste." 2 This consummation, however, is easily 
accounted for. The protracted realities of neglect and penury had 
at length dispelled the visions, and chilled the aspirations, of Genius: 
which, like Youth, may struggle awhile with unkindness and sorrow, 
but which is equally endangered by their premature influence, and 
equally irrevocable by subsequent attentions. Had Augustus him- 
self occupied the throne of the Antonines, no eminent superiority 
could have been expected ; but neither was the kind of encourage- 
ment afforded to literature by these princes calculated to foster 
imaginative excellence. Poetry, indeed, was utterly neglected ; 
the stage had fallen into the hands cf the populace, and was a 
mere vehicle of impurity ; 3 and the philosophers and orators who 
were the objects of Imperial patronage were those who best re- 
tained the maxims of their predecessors, not those who reasoned 
most freely on their knowledge, or studied to become critics in the 

1 Gibbon, Rom. Emp. ch. ii. 2 Ibid. 

3 " A theatro sepavamur, quod est privatum consistorium impudicitiae, ubi nihil 
probatur quam quod alibi non probatur." — Tertull. de Spectt. 



THE ANTONINES AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 185 

subject for themselves. But, without attempting a metaphysical Age of the 
discussion of the causes which induced the rapid decay of poetical Automnes - 
merit in and after the period of the Antonines, — a digression which, 
however seducing to a writer on this subject, is not expected in a 
brief summary of facts, — the effect is indisputable ; and the names 
which we shall now have to record will only be detailed in their 
chronological order, without attempting to classify where there is 
no connexion. 

The state of poetical literature during the sway of the Antonines 
may be conveniently gleaned from the following fact : Aulus Gellius, 
who appears to have been intimate with all the eminent literati of 
his time, speaks with the most extravagant commendation of the Pauiius. 
poet Julius Paullus, calling him the most learned man whom 
he could remember. 1 To the same testimony we are indebted for a Annianus. 
notice of Annianus, 2 who, as we learn from Ausonius, 3 composed 
Eescennine Carols. 

The lethargy which succeeded the decease of Marcus Aurelius 
cannot excite surprise. The Emperors were not unfrequently un- 
skilled in the national tongue ; rarely patronised literature at all ; 
and most rarely of all, poetry. 4 Commodus, in one sense, was a 
patron of the Muses, as his conduct gave rise to many lampoons. 5 
Pertinax, indeed, gave the sanction of his presence to poetical reci- 
tations. 6 Geta affected a high zeal for literary pursuits, and his serenus 
favourite author was Q. Serenus Sammonicus, who wrote a Sammonicus - 
poem on Medicine, still extant. 7 But the style of this prince's 
acquirements may best be estimated from the questions which he 
put to grammarians concerning the noises of animals, and the 
strictly literary dinners which he gave, wherein only dishes beginning ciodius 
with one letter were allowed. 8 Clodius Albinus wrote Georgics, Albmus - 
and Fabula Milesia. But encouragement and example appeared 
equally fruitless until the reign of Alexander, who attempted a more 
vigorous patronage, with somewhat more of the appearance of 
success. The language, however, had undergone important cor- 
ruptions, and Alexander was not best qualified to remove them. 
By an inversion of the fate of Telephus, the speech and literature 

1 Noct. Att. i. 22, v. 4, xix. 7. 2 Ibid. vii. 7. 

3 Praef. in Cent. Nupt. 

4 We give the following specimen of Imperial poetry from the pen of Macrinus, 
in answer to an epigram written on the occasion of his refusal of the name of 
Pius, and his acceptance of that of Felix : — 

Si talem Graium retulissent fata poetam, 

Qualis Latinus Gabalus iste fuit, 
Nil populus n6sset, nil ndsset curia, magno 

Nullus scripsisset carmina tetra mihi ! ! ! 

Jul. Capit. Macr. xi. 

5 Lar/jmd. Vit. Comm. xiii. ! 6 Jul. Capit. Pert. xi. 
7 Jul. Capit. Gord. Jun. ii. s Jul. Capit. Get. v. 



186 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 



ciodius of Borne were rapidly decaying beneath the influence of the same 
A mus " causes which had brought them to the high perfection they had 
once enjoyed. The Greek language was now indeed triumphant. 
That Lucretius and Cicero, expounding for the first time the 
doctrines of the Greek Philosophy in a language which possessed 
no equivalent expressions, should borrow from the rich and various 
stores of Greece, was only to be expected. But what originated 
in necessity was continued through affectation ; and a spirit similar 
to that which is now working the ruin of our own language pre- 
vailed. This spirit was rather sanctioned than checked by Augustus, 
who considered the naturalisation of a Greek word or phrase an 
acquisition to the language ; with more taste indeed, but not less 
error, than the Gallicising writers of our own times. Horace him- 
self was not indisposed to regard the practice with toleration. 1 
A perusal of the letters of Pliny (whose character, certainly, was 
favourable to the diffusion of a corruption propagated by pedantry 
and vanity), sufficiently testifies the progress which this destructive 
propensity had made in the course of half a century. Alexander, 
unhappily, was so addicted to Greek literature that he almost 
despised that of Eome ; 2 so that his policy, as might be expected, 
in no manner improved the purity of the language. His favourite 
Latin authors were, however, the Poets, 3 and these might certainly 
Sammonicus ^ ave en j°y e d his patronage if willing to claim it, as we know from 
the younger, the case of Q. Serenus Sammonicus, son of the poet of that name 
just noticed, and whose poetical abilities recommended him to the 
notice of the Court. Bernhardy conjectures that the Poem on 
Medicine, mentioned above, should be ascribed to the younger 
Sammonicus. 4 

The name of Serenus has greatly perplexed literary historians. 
Crinitus and Henry Stephens make A. Serenus and Q,. Septimius 
distinct poets, and Gyraldus adds another Serenus. But Marius 
Yictorinus 5 and Sidonius Apollinaris 6 speak of Septimius Serenus 
as one person; and some verses are quoted as the work of 
Septimius and Serenus, by the poetical grammarian, Teren- 
tianus Maurus. But the age of Terentian himself is not 
accurately determined, although generally referred to the period 
which we are now treating. Lachmann and Niebuhr refer him to 
the end of the third century. Yossius and Pabricius conjecture 
that he was no other than the Prasfect of Syene, mentioned by 
Martial in the eighty-seventh Epigram of the first Book ; and on 
this supposition Wernsdorf, after Gronovius and others, ventures 
to identify this Septimius with Septimius Severus, the correspondent 



Septimius. 



Incidental 
notice of 
Terentian. 



1 De Art. Poet. 52. 2 Lamprid. Alex. ii. et xxviii. 

3 Ibid, xxxiv. 4 Grundr. der R. L. Anm. 424. 

5 Gramm. lib. iii. p. 2578, edit. Putschii. 

6 Epist. ad Poleru. 



THE GORDIANS. BALBINUS. — GALLIENUS. 187 



of Statms, and proposes there to read Serenus for Severus. The incidental 

notice of" 
Terentiitn. 



extant works of Septimius are some fragments on rustic subjects, nc 



from several little pieces called Opuscula Ruralia ; and to him is 
attributed, by Wernsdorf, the celebrated Moretum, more commonly 
ascribed to Virgil. The Falisca, mentioned by the grammarians, 
were probably no other than the Opuscula Ruralia. They gave 
their name to the Faliscan measure, which consists of a dactylic 
trimeter followed by an iambus. Sammonicus also enjoyed the 
favour of the two first Gordiaus, father and son, to the latter of The 
whom he was tutor, and who were themselves poets ; the elder Gordians - 
having composed, when yet a boy, an Epic in thirty Books, called 
the Antoniniad, on the life and exploits of the Antonines, Poems 
called Halcyons, Uxorius, and Nilus, and a translation of Aratus 
and Demetrius, 1 being a kind of rifaccimento of the poetry of 
Cicero, as Pope remodelled the works of Donne ; while the younger 
amused himself with lighter productions. 2 Their successor, 
Balbinus, colleague of Maximus or Pupienus, is called, by his Baibinus. 
biographer, Julius Capitolinus, eminent among the poets of his 
time ; 3 but the praise is of small absolute value. Gallienus Gaiiienus. 
also was celebrated for his poetical talents, and gained the palm 
from one hundred competitors for an Upithalamium, part of which 
has been preserved in his life by Trebellius Pollio. None of the 
emperors of this period actually persecuted the Muses except 
Philip the Arab, whose savage law is still extant in the Justinian 
code : 4 " Roetce nulla immunitatis prarogativd juvantor" No 
important consequences, however, resulted from this temporary 
improvement in the general character of the imperial government. 
The climate, indeed, was mild and genial, but the soil was poor 
and stubborn. This assertion is best exemplified by considering 
the age of Cams and his sons, Carinus and Numerianus, by whose 
time the action of this improved artificial temperature had forced 
into light a few sickly productions, which it will be requisite to 
notice. 

The two former of these princes were little addicted to intellec- 
tual pleasure ; yet their education was liberal, and they were not 
insensible to the excellence of literary pursuits, and the value of a 
poet's praise. The mild and amiable Numerianus was a poet by Numerian 
choice and feeling ; according to his biographer, Yopiscus, 5 he sur- 
passed all the poets of his time. This may either allude to his 

1 " Cuncta ilia quae Cicero ex Demetrio et Arato," &c. — Jul. Capit. Gord. 
Maj. iii. ; but some for ex Demetrio, read de Mario. 

2 Julius Capitolinus passes the following criticism on his writings : " Non 
magna, non minima, sed media, et qua? appareant esse homiuis ingcniosi, sed 
luxuriantis, et suum deserentis ingenium." — Gord. Jun. iv. 

3 Jul. Capit. Max. et Balb. vii. 

4 Lib. x. tit. Iii. 3. 5 Vopisc. Numer. xi. 



188 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Aurelius 
Apollinaris. 



Nemesian. 




Nuinerian. 



abstract reputation, or to his successes in the poetical contests, 
which had now been revived, and in which he bore a conspicuous 
part. History is seldom identified with just criticism in the matter 
of literary sovereigns ; still less can a 
dependent vassal be expected to pro- 
nounce an impartial decision on the 
merits of his absolute master. In the 
present instance, however, there is no 
violence in the supposition that the 
historian or the judges recorded an un- 
prejudiced opinion. The poetry of 
some of this prince's contemporaries 
has been spared by the caprice of Time, 
and renders the possibility of his supe- 
riority perfectly consistent with the 
usual standard of imperial mediocrity. 
We have not the good fortune to 
possess the iambics of Aurelius 
Apollinaris, who celebrated the 
exploits of Cams, and whom, according to the nourish of 
Vopiscus, 1 Numerian, with a similar poem, " flashed into obscurity 
as if with a sunbeam ;" but the works of M. Aurelius Olympius 
Nemesianus, of Carthage, author of Halleutlca, Cynegetica, 
Nautica (and possibly a poem, De Aucupio, of which we 
possess two fragments 2 ), whom he fairly vanquished, are partly 
extant, and certainly, in this case, dispense with all the difficulties 
of the hypothesis, that a poetical monarch may be tried by impartial 
contemporary judges. 

Of the Cynegetica of Nemesian only three hundred and twenty- 
five lines have reached us : whatever judgment may be formed on 
their merits by modern critics, it is certain that the Emperor's 
triumph was by no means lightly esteemed by his contemporaries. 
Nemesian, indeed, received far greater honours than ever had been 
enjoyed by Horace, Virgil, or Ovid ; whatever we are to understand 
by the corrupt passage in which his distinctions are recorded, they 
w r ere evidently extensive and remarkable. 3 To this poet is ascribed, 
by Wernsdorf, the fragment on the labours of Hercules, usually 



1 " Velut radio solis obtexit." — Vopisc. Numer. xi. 

2 Some read " Ixeutica" for " Nautica," in the passage of Vopiscus. 

3 " Omnibus coloniis illustratus emicuit." — Vopisc. Numer. xi. Casaubon 
corrects coronis ; it is the most probable reading -which has been offered, and is 
now generally adopted. Mr. Clinton (Fasti Romani, A.D. 283), refers this eulogium 
and the authorship of the Halieutica, &c. to Numerian. But even his altered 
punctuation makes such a reference very awkward, and almost un grammatical; to 
say nothing of the unquestionable fact, that Nemesian wrote a poem called 
Cynegetica, while there is no external proof that Numerian wrote anything of 
the kind. 



CALPURNIUS. 189 

printed with the works of Claudian. The property of this trifle is Nemesian. 
in no respect important ; but those who think the subject worth 
further prosecution may read the arguments of the learned critic in 
the second volume of his Poetce Minores. The same scholar, on 
the most solid and convincing grounds, has restored the four 
Eclogues commonly assigned to this author to T. Calpurnius calpurnius. 
Siculus, a poet of the same period, and, if we may trust universal 
tradition, an object of the patronage of Nemesian. Wernsdorf, 
who seems to have exhausted on the illustration of both these 
poets all the ample stores of his learning, and all his excursive 
powers of conjecture, stoutly denies the identity of Melibceus with 
the author of the Cynegetica ; his argument, which is defended at 
some length, may be entirely comprised in the fact, that the 
Mehboeus of Calpurnius is everywhere represented as a person of 
great power and influence at court, which Nemesian is not known 
to have been. Little, however, is known of the biography of 
Nemesian ; and the few particulars which can be collected rather 
favour than oppose the opinion that he was a person of rank and 
influence. Ulitius even conjectures that he was related to the 
imperial family. 1 Under such circumstances there scarcely appears 
to be sufficient reason for disturbing an ancient and consistent 
tradition. But if the claims of Nemesian be unfounded, where is 
Meliboeus to be sought ? Wernsdorf is not a little perplexed in 
discovering a character of this period equally conspicuous for illus- 
trious rank and poetical pre-eminence, and at last fixes on C. Junius 
Tiberianus, of whose literary qualifications and patronage incidental 
Vopiscus speaks highly, in his introduction to the life of the JifiSan. 
Emperor Aurelian. " But Melibceus was himself a poet." So 
also was Tiberian ; for Eulgentius Planciades quotes a verse from 
an author of this name, 2 and even cites his tragedy of Prometheus ; 3 
but there is no evidence whatever to prove that the biographer and 
grammarian alluded to the same person. 

The Eclogues of Calpurnius, eleven in all, are (if we may be 
allowed the paradoxical expression) more Yirgilian than those of 
Virgil. Not only are they almost a cento of the phrases and 
sentiments of that poet, but his misapprehension of Theocritus has 
been implicitly adopted, and even advanced. The injudicious 
mode of allegorising has been throughout observed ; and this 
enables us to glean from them a few unconnected particulars 
respecting their author. Erom a needy adventurer he appears to 
have become, by the interest of his patron Melibceus, a person of 
consideration at the Imperial Court, principally in consequence of 
his poetical merits. It is not improbable that he was the same 

1 Comm. ad tit. Cyneg. Nemesiani. 
2 De Scrm. Antiq. voc. Sudus. 3 Myth. lib. iii. 



Incidental 
notice of 
Tioerian. 



Effects of 
Christianity 
on Poetry. 



190 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 



with Junius Calpurnius, styled by Vopiscus the Imperial Remem- 
brancer; the variation of the prtenomen being by no means an 
insuperable objection, as we have seen in the instance of Petronius. 
Whether he is to be identified with the poet whose comedy, 
Phronesis, is cited by Fulgentius, 1 is not so clear. The conjecture 
of Sarpe, that Calpurnius was the Serranus of Juvenal, and the 
friend of Persius, scarcely merits this brief recording notice. 

The style of Calpurnius, even more than that of Nemesian, in- 
dicates a new era in the poetical history of the Latin language. 
The resources of Greece being now exhausted, no object of imita- 
tion remained but the Latin authors themselves ; a situation which 
necessarily placed an uninventive people in a state of rapid deteriora- 
tion. The language also had materially degenerated ; and writers 
ambitious of reputation were compelled to embrace the expression 
of a happier age ; a necessity which produced an appearance of art 
and labour, without effectually escaping the infection of colloquial 
corruption. Poetry, however, had again become fashionable ; and 
the continuance of a virtuous and pacific government might have 
cheered with a few forced flowers the bleak winter of the Roman 
poetical history; but the murder of Numerian, and a reign of 
military excitement and tumultuous glory, banished the Latin. 
Muses for ever from the echoes of Albunea and the haunts of Tibur. 
Their reappearance on the shores of the Propontis deserves a more 
particular consideration. 

The effects of Christianity on the poetical spirit have been dis- 
cussed under a great variety of forms. The study of truth, it 
has been argued, is frequently unfavourable to the action of 
a warm and enthusiastic imagination, the reveries of which it 
reprobates and dispels. The poet, to succeed, and his reader, to be 
pleased, must lend themselves for a season to the influence of illu- 
sions, which the earnest contemplation of abstract truth will render 
it difficult to create or experience. If Lucretius felt unable to 
treat his subject poetically, without invoking the aid of one of 
those powers whose agency it w r as the object of his work to deny, 
and if Tasso was sensible that his page required other embellish- 
ments than the sober colours of fact, there must, it should seem, 
exist a strong incompatibility between the faculties of demonstration 
and invention. But, above all other, religious truth must, appa- 
rently, be the most adverse to the spirit of poetry. The Christian 
poet must discard all the beautiful creations of Mythology; or, 
should he retain them, as in the impious and absurd combinations 
of Camoens, he will excite no feeling corresponding to that scarcely 
disbelieving awe with which even the most philosophical of heathen 
readers must have perused the inspired pages of Homer. To com- 



1 Voc. Nasiterna. 



EFFECTS OE CHRISTIANIT1 ON POETRY. 191 

bine consistent fiction with religious truth must be the work of a Effects of 
Milton or a Tasso ; a genius that can " breathe empyreal air : " on poetry/ 
nor would it be difficult to show that even Milton and Tasso have 
been sometimes mastered by the mightiness of their themes. 

Such are the arguments most frequently adduced to prove the 
deteriorating influence of Christianity on the poetical character. 
"Whatever truth may be contained in the observations themselves, 
we are now about to consider a portion of poetical history which 
will clearly show that tendencies of an opposite nature have been 
quite sufficient to counterbalance all the disadvantages resulting 
from the opposition of evangelical fact to poetical fiction. The 
conversion of the Empire to Christianity is not more remarkable 
as a political than as a poetical era ; the corrupt state of the lan- 
guage, and the turbulent condition in which the newly established 
religion found the people, being, apparently, the only obstacles to a 
complete renovation of Latin poetry. The stupendous miracles of 
the Sacred History, the whole administration of the great plan of 
human redemption, the sufferings and the triumphs of the Church, 
exercised and elevated the original genius of Prudentius ; while 
the refinement of taste and intellect, which is always consequent 
on the influence of Christianity, astonishes us in a most corrupt 
period of the language with the pure and truly classical poetry of 
Claudian. To this refinement, and to that elevation which man 
receives from communion with the supreme Spirit, — a communion 
which, in its highest form, produced the noblest poetry, that of the 
Holy Scriptures, would we ascribe the poetical revolution which 
succeeded the conversion of the Empire. 

A consummation of this nature neither was, nor could be, 
immediate. Most of the Christian writers, however, from the first 
establishment of the religion, had been poets. We have still some 
verses by Cyprianus, Be sanctce cruris ligno ; and there also exist Cyprian, 
five hexameter books against Marcion, a poem on the last judgment, 
pieces called Genesis and Sodoma, and a remonstrance with an 
apostate Senator, which are all ascribed to the muse of Terttjl- Tertuiiian. 
lianus. The first Christian Emperor, indeed, although a patron of 
learning, was no poet ; 1 his son Constantius attempted versifica- 
tion, but Ammianus Marcellinus speaks very contemptuously of his 
productions in this way. 2 Yet the influences of a more humanised 

1 We have no account of any poetical compositions of Constantine. Porphyry, 
the poet, indeed speaks in his panegyric thus : — " Inter belli pacisque virtutes, inter 
triumphos et laureas, inter legum sanctiones et jura, etiam Musis tibi familiaribus 
adeo vacas ut inter tot Divinae Majestatis insigna, quibus invictus semper in primis 
es, hujus etiam studii in te micet splendor egregius." But the speaker is a 
panegyrist and a poet. 

2 " Quum a rhetorica- per ingenium desereretur obtusum, ad versificandum 
transgressus, nihil opera* pretium fecit." — Ammian. Marcell. xxi. 16. 






192 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



policy were conspicuous in the number of poets who endeavoured 
to adorn their respective ages. Of these we shall attempt to give 
some account. 

Lactantius. The eminent Lucius C melius Lactantius Firmianus, to whom 
religion and literature are deeply indepted, will naturally claim the 
first notice, although his poetical works are, at most, few, and the 
genuineness of all the poems ascribed to him has been questioned. 
The Phoenix appears, on all grounds, to be justly ascribable to this 
author. The consent of MSS., and the improbability that thi p 
poem should otherwise have been found in company with the 
writings of Lactantius, seem reasons sufficient to establish his claim, 
in the absence of opposite evidence. Many scholars, however, 
have hesitated to confirm this apparently unexceptionable testimony, 1 
principally on account of the silence of the poet on the subject of 
Christianity, and his allusions to the Gentile fables of Deucalion 
and Phaethon. It is not, however, a necessary consequence, that a 
poetical believer in the Greek Mythology cannot be a Christian ; 
although it is nothing impossible that the Phoenix may have been 
written before the conversion of its author. Certain it is, that the 
opening description of the country of the Phoenix has been com- 
piled at least from indirect Jewish tradition ; and the word magnifies, 
for magnitudo, which is the reading of all the MSS., appears to 
assign this poem to some African writer, this termination being 
then common with the Latin writers of that country, and adopted 
elsewhere by Lactantius himself, in the word minuties.- The 
Carmen de Paschd and the Passio Domini are now generally allowed 
to be the productions of a much later writer, Venantius Hoxo- 

Fortunatus. Rius Fortunatus, in whose works they are found. Jerom 3 
ascribes to Lactantius a work called Symposium, and an hexameter 
poem intituled 'OSonropiKov. The latter is lost. A poem supposed 
to be the former, is published in his works. It consists entirely 
of a collection of enigmas in dactylic hexameter tristichs. There 
is, however, an important variation in the reading of the first line. 
Many copies have 



Hsec quoque Symposius de carmine lusit inepto : 

which, if correct, does not intitule the poem Symposium, but 
directly ascribes it to the pen of some Symposius. Fabricius ex- 
pressly asserts that all the MSS. prefix the name of Symposius as 
the author; 4 and Sigebertus Gemblacensis speaks of Symposius the 
Epigrammatist. 3 Wernsdorf therefore attributes this collection to 



1 Ittig. Biblioth, Patr. ad Clem. Ep. i. ad Corinth. Buchner, ad Hymn, de 
Resurrect. Sirmondus, notse in Theodulfuni. 

2 Institt. iv. 12. 3 Cat. Scriptt. Eccless. Firmianus. 
4 Bibl. Lat. iv. 1. sec. 7. 5 De Scriptt. Eccless. cap. 132. 



SYMPOSIUS. — PENTADIUS. PLAVIUS. 193 

Celius Eirmianus Symposius, a contemporary of Lactantius, to Symposius. 
whose pen we are indebted for two little pieces on Fortune and 
Envy respectively. Pentadius, also of the same period, is Pentadius. 
supposed to be the author of several Elegies and Epigrams 
ascribed by extant MSS. to a writer of that name. The only 
peculiarity about the former is, that the last hemistich of the 
pentameter verse is always the same with the first of the hexameter. 
It would be injustice, however, to this poet not to mention that the 
following fragment is attributed to him, although the internal 
evidence by no means favours his claim. 

Non est, falleris, haec beata, non est, 
Quod vos creditis esse, vita non est : 
Fulgentes manibus videre gemmas, 
Aut testudineo jacere lecto, 
Aut pluma latus abdidisse molli, 
Aut auro bibere, aut cubare cocco, 
Regales dapibus gravare mensas, 
Et quidquid Libyco secatur arvo 
Non una. posituin tenere cella : 
Sed, nullos trepidum timere casus, 
Nee vano populi furore tangi, 
Et stricto nihil aestuare ferro : 
Hoc quisquis poterit, licebit illi 
Fortunam moveat loco superbus. 

'Tis not, — tbou thyself deceivest, — 
Happiness, what tbou believest : 
Glittering jewels on thy fingers ; 
Ivory x couch, where Languor lingers, 
'Mid soft depths of down reclining ; 
Golden cup, or purple shining ; 
Kingly feast on groaning table ; 
Bursting garners, all unable 
To confine their Libyan treasures : 
Happiness he trulier measures, 
"Who, above men's crimes and errors, 
Shares no factions, dreads no teirors ; — 
He may hurl, — and he alone, — 
Fortune from her haughty throne. 

Contemporary with Lactantius was Elavius the grammarian, Fiavius. 
whose name has been strangely converted by modern critics into 
Q. Khemmius Eannius Palsemon, and thus by some confounded 
with the same Palsemon whom we have already noticed, and to 
whom the poems of Priscian have been attributed. According to 
Jerom, 2 he accompanied Lactantius to Nicomedia, at the request of 
the Emperor Diocletian, and was celebrated for a metrical treatise 
on medicine. 

1 We have taken a liberty with the word testudineo, which does not affect the 
spirit of the verses. 

2 De Scriptt. Eccless. 30 ; item in Jovinian., lib. ii. 
[R. L.] O 



194 



DECLINE OP LATIN POETUY. 



Porphyry 
the Less. 



A notorious, although by no means gifted, poet of the age of 
Constantine was Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius. The 
compositions of this author, and the character of his life, do 
not make a very laborious search into his chronology expe- 
dient ; there is, however, a little confusion on the subject of 
dates, which we shall endeavour to rectify without reference to any 
of the various hypotheses invented for the solution of this difficulty. 
He appears, then, in the year of the Christian era 326, to have 
addressed to the Emperor a gratulatory poem on the occasion of the 
twentieth celebration of his accession. Before this time, however, 
he seems to have dedicated another poem to the Emperor ; for 
whose reception of which Porphyry thanked him in a letter still 
extant. After these transactions he was banished, but was subse- 
quently recalled in the year 328, 1 in consideration of a panegyric on 
his imperial master. He appears to have been a person of some 
note, since he is styled in the Emperor's letter f rater carissimus, and 
is thought to have exercised the office of Prafectus urbis. 

The works of Porphyry are conceived with infinite labour. They 
are all subjected to some arbitrary law, being either acrostichs, or 
representing by metrical interlineations the form of a ship, a shep- 
herd's reed, the monogram J^, or some fanciful device. They 
have, therefore, as may naturally be supposed, no higher merit than 
that of ingenuity. He was probably an epigrammatist, as some 
epigrams by an author of this name are cited by Eulgentius. 2 




Constantine the Great. 



Juvencus. Under Constantine and his sons nourished C. Vettius Aquili- 
nus Juvencus, a Spanish priest, whose Historic/, Evangelica, in four 
books of heroic metre, is still extant, remarkable for its minute 
fidelity and general purity, but written, like the poem of Silius, 



1 Hier. chron. eo anno. 



2 De Cont. Virgil, et Myth. ii. 4. 



AVIENUS. 195 

" majore cura quam ingenio." We scarcely know whether we are 
to class among the poets an author of these times, Commodianus, commodian. 
who wrote in accentual hexameters a book of instructions for 
Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, still extant, and of course more 
remarkable for piety than elegance. An entire sense is included 
in short sentences, the initial letters of which, being joined in their 
order, give the titles of the stanzas or divisions. In the age of 
Constantius flourished Makius Yictorinus, a native of Africa, victorinus. 
who taught rhetoric at Eome, where he became a convert to 
Christianity. He wrote a poem on the martyrdom of the Macca- 
bees, some hymns, and some poetical commentaries. Hymns also 
are ascribed by Jerom to the celebrated Hilaeius, and some of St. Hilary, 
those which are still used in the Latin Church bear his name ; 
but, as Dupin conjectures, without sufficient foundation. 1 Dama- Damasus. 
sus, Bishop of Eome, also claims notice as the author of several 
poetical pieces on the martyrs, and the Psalms ; some of these are 
still supposed to be extant. The poems commonly attributed to 
Damasus are mostly of an epigrammatic form. The life of Julian 
the Emperor was also written in verse by Callistus. 2 If we are Caiiistus. 
to receive the critical as well as historical testimony of Jerom, we 
must suppose Matronianus equal to any of the ancients ; but we Matronianus. 
have not the means of criticising for ourselves. In the reign of 
Valentinian, Attilius, or C^cilius Severus, wrote a book called severus. 
'OboL-nopiKov, which appears to have been a kind of Yarronian satire. 
The celebrated Ambrosius, Bishop of Milan, was the author of The 
several hymns still used in the Latin Church ; and part of the con- Am 10SU ' 
troversy between his namesake of Alexandria and Apollinaris was 
conducted in verse. More particular accounts of some of these 
poets will be found in the ecclesiastical portion of this volume. 

But the first eminent poet who flourished after the reign of Avienus. 
Constantine was Eufus Eestus Avienus. The age and country 
of this writer have been disputed. Tradition or conjecture has 
assigned to Spain the honour of his birth ; but this opinion is 
unsupported by written testimony, and even contradicted, if the 
inscription found in the Ceesarean villa refer to this poet, which 
there seems small reason to doubt. From this we learn that he 
was the son of Musonius Avienus, 3 or the son of Avienus and 
descendant of Musonius, accordingly as we punctuate the first line; 
that he was born at Yulsinium, in Etruria ; that he resided at 
Eome ; that he was twice proconsul ; that he was the author of 
many poetical pieces ; that his wife's name was Placida; and that 
he had a large family. The same epigram contradicts the notion, 
too precipitately grounded on some vague expressions in his 
writings, that he was a Christian ; for it is nothing else than a 

1 Dupiu, Eccles. Hist. vol. iv. tit. " Hilaire." 
- Socrates, iii. 21. 3 Festus Musoni sobolcs prolesque Avieni. 



196 DECLINE OP LATIN POETRY. 

iviemis. religious address to the goddess Nortia, the Fortune of the Etru- 
rians. This conclusion is also deducible from a short metrical 
account which Avienus gives of his pursuits in the country, wherein 
he informs us that he employed a portion of every day in prayer to 
the gods, 1 as well as in poetical pursuits ; and his son Placidus, 
evidently, was not educated in the Christian religion, nor can it be 
supposed that he would have composed the following epitaph on a 
Christian father : 

SANCTO PATRI FILIVS PLACIDVS. 

Ibis in optatas secies, nam Jupiter aethram 

Pandit, Feste, tibi, candidus ut venias. 
Jam que venis ! tendit dextras chorus inde Deorum, 

Et toto tibi jam plauditur ecce polo. 

Mount, Festus, to the great desir'd abodes ! 

Jove opes thy way through his unclouded sky ! 
Thou com'st ! their hands the council of the gods 

Extend, and all applaud thee from on high. 

Jerom speaks of Avienus as of a recent writer; 2 we can scarcely 
therefore, with Crinitus, place him in the reign of Diocletian. The 
death of Jerom happened in 420, in his ninety-first year : on the 
supposition, therefore, that Avienus flourished about the middle of 
that father's protracted life, we have referred him in our chro- 
nology to a.d. 370, or the period of Valentinian, Valens, and 
Gratian. 

His writings. The extant and acknowledged works of this poet are versions of 
the <baiv6fj.eva of Aratus and the Uepirjyrjo-is of Dionysius ; and a 
portion of a poem De ord maritimd, which includes (with some 
digressions) the coast between Cadiz and Marseilles. The forty- 
two fables rendered from iEsop into elegiac verse, and sometimes 
ascribed to this author, are now generally assigned to Flavius 
Avianus, a contemporary writer. The other poems generally 

AYiaiius! believed to be the work of Avienus are an epistle to Flavianus 
Myrmecius, an elegiac piece De cantu Sirenum, and some verses 
addressed to the author's friends from the country. A poem, De 
urbibus Sispania Mediterraneis, is cited by some Spanish writers as 
the work of Avienus; 3 but it is generally supposed to be the 
forgery of a Jesuit of Toledo. Servius 4 ascribes to Avienus iambic 
versions of the narrative of Yirgil and the history of Livy ; which 
observation of the grammarian, together with a consideration 
of the genius and habits of this poet, renders it not altogether 

1 " Luce Deos oro," is the reading of the best MSS. But some have " Mane 
Deum exoro," &c. 

2 In Epist. ad Titum, v. 12. 

3 See Nicolaus Antonius, Bibl. Vet. Hisp. ii. 9. 

4 Ad, Virg. ./En. x. 272 and 388. 



Incidental 
notice of 



PERIOD OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE EMPERORS. 197 

improbable that lie is the author of a very curious Latin epitome Epitome of 
of the Iliad, 1 which has reached us, and which throws some light theIlMd - 
on the poetical history of the time. 

The revival (if so it may be called) of poetical studies under the 8ft*e of the 
Byzantine emperors and their western colleagues, found the public nSLdT 
mind in a very untoward condition. The spirit of slavish imitation 
(at no time foreign to the Eoman character) had made active pro- 
gress between the ages of the Antonines and of Cams, and appears 
to have reached its crisis under Theodosius. The preposterous 
ambition of surpassing Virgil and Horace, which had long kept 
possession of the Eoman Parnassus, was exchanged for an equally 
preposterous veneration of the great names both of Greek and 
Eoman antiquity ; and a blind consecration of the errors of distin- 
guished writers depreciated the homage, as it multiplied the faults, 
of their servile successors. Every literary character was a poet, if 
the mere composition of verses can confer that sacred title ; while 
every poet was a literary character, — ambitious rather of showing 
his familiarity with the ancient classics, and his profound and indis- 
criminate admiration of all their pages, than of securing his own 
fame by the productions of a cultivated imagination. The Perie- 
gesis of Avienus, which most critics call a liberal translation, might, 
perhaps, more properly, be termed a servile original. Like his 
versions of Livy and Yirgil, it was less a translation than a meta- 
phrase ; the timid performance of a writer who dreaded to explore 
an untrodden path, without the slightest intention of relinquishing 
those pretensions to originality, which, in the then corrupt state of 
poetical taste, were as easily allowed as asserted. 

The prevalent passion for metaphrastic writing received encou- 
ragement from the circumstances of the times. AVhen Homer and 
Yirgil were less felt than revered, and more read than understood, 
it was natural that readers should desire a less laborious introduc- 
tion to the destined objects of their admiration than an actual 
perusal of the authors. The whole substance of the Iliad in little 
more than a thousand very readable lines, could not, under such 
circumstances, fail to be acceptable. Hence the Epitome of the 
Iliad, judicious in its selections, pertinent in its additions, and 
not inelegant in its language, attained to high reputation in the 
middle ages, was frequently quoted for Homer, and amply used 
by poets and fiction-writers ; and indeed remained, until the 
revival of learning, the only Homer generally known in the western 
world. 

Meanwhile the example, no less than the conduct, of the Court, 
was employed in the encouragement of poetical pursuits ; although 

1 This poem is sometimes in MSS. merely called " Homerus de bello Trojano," 
or, " de destructione Trojae ; " sometimes it is ascribed to " Pindarus Thebanus :" 
manifest mediaeval gloss. 



198 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



not without a tincture of that degenerate taste which prefers the 
amusements of ingenuity to the excursions of fancy. The compo- 
sition of a nuptial cento was not regarded an unworthy employment 

vaientinian. by the Emperor Valentinianus. So partial, indeed, was that 
prince to these ingenious trifles, that we are still indebted to his 
authority for the similar combination of ingenuity and indecency 

Gratian. perpetrated by Ausonius. Gratianus was also a poet, 1 and 
received his education from this celebrated writer, who is supposed 
by the ablest critics to have panegyrised his imperial pupil in the 
following lines : 

Bellandi fandique potens Augustus, honorem 
Bis meret; ut geminet titulos, qui piselia Musis 
Temperat, et Geticum moderatur Apolline Martem. 
Anna inter, Chunnosque truces, furtoque nocentes 
Sauromatas, quantum cessat de tempore belli 
Indulget Clariis tantum inter castra Camcenis. 
Vix posuit volucres stridentia tela sagittas; 
Musarum ad calamos fertur manus, otia nescit, 
Et commutata meditatur arundine carmen. 2 

Augustus, lord of eloquence and wars, 

With Phoebus and the Nine combines the Getic Mars. 

'Mid Hunnish stiife and Sauromatian guile, 

At every pause he courts the Muse's smile. 

Scarce has he laid the barbed reed aside, 

Ere on the verse the tuneful reed is plied ; 

He wields alternate, and without repose, 

The reed that charms his friends, the reed that wounds his foes. 



poem Achilles appears to have been 



Prom the conclusion of this 
the imperial theme : 

Sed carmen non molle modi's : bella horrida Martis 
Odrysii, Thressaeque viraginis arma retractat. 
Exsulta, iEacide ! celebraris vate superbo 
Rursum ! Roman usque tibi contingit Homerus. 

But no soft lay ! the Odrysian Lord of arms 
He sings, and fierce Bellona's martial charms. 
Joy, son of iEacus ! in stately strain 
A Roman Homer gives thee life again ! 

But we owe a few words to the panegyrist himself. 

The most authentic particulars respecting Decius Magnus 
Ausonius are to be found in his own writings, and more especially 
in the second of his prafatiuncula, wherein he treats the subject 
professedly. His father was physician to the Emperor Vaientinian ; 
he was also a Eoman senator, and member of the municipal council 
of Bourdeaux, at which place the poet was born, a.d. 309. Had 
his education been solely confided to paternal attentions, it is pro- 
bable that no record of him in this place would have been necessary, 

1 Aurel. Vict, xlvii. 2 Epigr. !. 



AUSONIUS. PAULLINUS. 199 

as the senior Ausonius, although well read in Greek literature, was 

but indifferently acquainted with Latin ; but, by the exertions of 

his maternal uncle, tEmilius Magnus Arborius, himself a poet, incidental 

and the reputed author of an elegy, still extant, ad nympham nimis Arborias. 

cultam, and those of the grammarians Minervius, Nepotian, and 

Staphylus, the disadvantages of our poet's circumstances were 

abundantly removed. From these eminent men he acquired the 

principles of grammar and rhetoric; his success in the latter of 

these arts induced him to make trial of the bar ; but the former 

was his choice, and in 367 he was appointed by the Emperor 

Yalentinian, as we have already observed, tutor to the young prince 

Gratian, whom he accompanied into Germany the following year. 

He became successively Count of the Empire, Quaestor, Governor 

of Gaul, Libya, and Latium, and first consul. He married Attusia 

Lucana Sabina, daughter of an eminent citizen of Bourdeaux, by 

whom he had two sons and one daughter. After his consulship 

he appears to have withdrawn from public affairs, and to have lived 

on a private estate, where he died, at the age of 83. That he was 

a professed Christian can admit of no doubt ; and some of his 

Christian pieces are so pious and beautiful that he might have 

gained the reputation of somewhat more, had he not disgraced 

his pages with language and sentiments unbecoming a pagan of 

decency. 

The extant poetical works of Ausonius are: — 1. A book of Writings of 
epigrams. 2. IJphemeris, or the transactions of a day. 3. Taren- Ausomus - 
talia, tributes to the memory of deceased friends. 4. Professores, 
short metrical memoirs of the professors of Bourdeaux. 5. Epita- 
pliia Herotim, epitaphs of the heroes who fell in the Trojan war, 
and some others. 6. Tetrastichs on the characters of the Caesars 
as far as Heliogabalus. 7. Ordo Nohilium Urbium. 8. A kind of 
drama on the seven wise men of Greece. 9. Idyls ; poems of the most 
multifarious kind. 10. Eclogues; principally astrological. 11. Epistles. 

The poetry of Ausonius, like that of Avienus, is alike distin- 
guished by poverty of argument, verbal conceits, profusion of 
mechanical ingenuity, and imitation, or rather compilation, of the 
ancients. It is valuable, however, to the literary historian : its 
variety alone affords us a considerable insight into the state of 
poetry in that age ; and the station and pursuits of the author 
allowed him that familiarity with contemporary poets which has 
imparted to his works the character of poetical memoirs. Of this 
advantage we shall now avail ourselves. 

The most remarkable, on all accounts, among the poetical inti- st.Paullimxs. 
mates of Ausonius was Pontius Paullinus, the celebrated bishop 
of Nola, for such we shall consider him, until we know on what 
authority Gyraldus and Crinitus have grounded their distinction. 1 

1 See Gyral. de Poet. dial. v. Crinitus, in vita. 



200 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 

Pauiiinus. This pious and learned person was born in or near Bourdeaux, 
about a.d. 353, and was educated by Ausonius, who led him, as he 
himself informs us, to the mysteries of the Muses. On account of 
the paternal tenderness which Ausonius everywhere expresses 
towards his pupil, and the filial respect exhibited in turn by the 
grateful Pauiiinus, which sometimes induces them to use the words 
pater, Jillus, &c, it has been supposed that Pauiiinus was the 
grandson of Ausonius ; but this opinion is improbable, and desti- 
tute of further foundation. He was certainly Consul, and that 
previously to his tutor ; but, as his name does not appear in the 
consular tables, it is probable that he was substituted in the room 
of some other. He afterwards was baptised by Delphinus, Bishop 
of Bourdeaux ; and, having distributed his estate among the poor, 
settled at Barcelona, where he was ordained priest on Christmas- 
day, a.d. 393. Prom this retreat his tutor in vain endeavoured 
to recal him, and wrote, occasionally, in a strain of disappointed 
affection at his silence. These metrical letters received similar 
answers, abounding in terms of the most grateful respect and 
Christian affection. Pauiiinus afterwards accepted the see of Nola, 
and there remained till that city was sacked by the Goths, a.d. 410. 
It was probably at this time, and not on the invasion of the 
Vandals, which did not take place until forty-four years after, that 
the circumstance occurred which Gregory relates, that the bishop, 
having expended his whole estate in ransoming prisoners, at length 
disposed of his person in exchange for the son of a poor widow, 
and was sent into Africa, where his rank being disclosed, he was 
immediately restored. Pauiiinus married a lady named Therasia, of 
whom he speaks in terms of the highest affection. He enjoyed the 
friendship of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Martin, St. Jerom, 
and many of the distinguished churchmen of that period. It is 
probable that he was the uncle of another Pauiiinus, author of a 
poem still extant, called Eucharisticon. 

His -writings. The extant poetical works of Pauiiinus are : — 1. Epistles. 2. An 
Elegy to Celsus, and other Lyrics. 3. A Sapphic Ode on Nicetas 
the Dacian. 4. An Epic Sketch on the Life of John the Baptist. 
5. Metrical Version of some Psalms. 6. An Epithalamium. 
7. Some birth-day pieces. His hexameter history out of Suetonius 
has perished. Ausonius might have been sincere, when, speaking 
of the verses of Pauiiinus, he observed, 

Cedimus ingenio, quantum prsecedimus sevo : 
Assurget Musse nostra Camoena tuse : 

since in sentiment, and even in elegance, few will compare his stiff 
and puerile compositions with the natural, simple, and unambitious 
effusions of his pupil. A specimen of the writings of St. Pauiiinus 
will be found in the ecclesiastical division of this volume. 

A conspicuous acquaintance of Ausonius was Atticus Tyro 



DIONYSIUS CATO. 201 

Delphidius, whose history he has briefly sketched among the Delphidius. 
Professors of Bourdeaux. This poet, at an early age, was a 
successful competitor in the Capitoline contest, and afterwards a 
candidate for the epic laurel. Not content, however, with the 
tranquil retreats of the Muses, he embraced, apparently, the cause 
of Procopius, who rebelled against the Emperor Yalens in 365 ; 
and, but for the entreaties of his father, Attius Patera, a celebrated 
rhetorician, would certainly have lost his life. He afterwards 
taught rhetoric, but with great carelessness ; and died in the prime 
of life, without the affliction of beholding his wife and daughter 
adopt the heresy of Priscillian, for which the former was beheaded. 
Ausonius speaks, also, with great warmth of admiration of Pro- p r0C uiu*. 
cuius, 1 who refused to publish his verses ; and of Alcimus Alethius, 2 A , lci ^ 
a poet, and writer of the life of Julian, but whether in verse does 
not appear. The satires of Tetradius he prefers to those of Tetradius. 
Lucilius ; 3 and Crispus he ranks with Horace and Yirgil ; 4 but Crispus. 
these eulogies are well understood. Theon, whom some represent Taecn. 
as the intimate friend of Ausonius, and on that account charge the 
latter with gross familiarity in his epistles, seems really to have 
been only the butt of the poet, who attacked his plagiarisms, his 
bad verses, his vitiated elocution, and even his personal defects, 
with an irony which, however transparent, not improbably prevailed 
on the imbecility of his victim to confide himself to the friendship 
of his correspondent, whose bad faith could only be equalled by his 
bad taste. 

[A volume, under the title of Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Mori- Dionysius 
his, has largely exercised the conjectural powers of the critics. Cat0 ' 
Erasmus, in a preface which he wrote to it, doubts whether it be 
not the work of many different hands. Malschius, in his similar 
preface, inclines to a belief that the title should run " Dionysius, 
Cato de Moribus; " and imagines it to have proceeded from the pen 
of one Dionysius, (a common name for slaves in Koine,) who sought 
to give authority to his own apophthegms, under the great name of 
Cato ; and whom he supposes, from internal evidence, to have lived 
under Trajan and the Antonines. Boxhornius, Cannegieter, and 
Barthius have discussed various hypotheses at a length very dis- 
proportionate to the slight importance of the subject ; but Withof 
has exceeded all in his huge Dissertation, which will be found, 
together with those mentioned above, in the reprint of the Edition 
of Arntzenius, 1754;. Withof argues for the claim of Q. Serenus 
Sammonicus, whose writings appear to have been familiarly known 
to Greta, (Spartianus, 5,) and Alexander Severus, (Law -p rid ins, 30,) 
and are honourably mentioned by Spartianus, when he relates the 
murder of their author by Caracalla, while at a banquet, cnjus Ubri 
jplurimi ad doctrinam extant, {Caracalla, -A.) 

1 Epig. xxxiv. - Proff. ii. 3 Epist. xv. 4 Pioff. xxi. 






202 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



The 
JJutichrt. 



Claudian. 



These Disticha, from whatever hand they may proceed, are first 
mentioned by the physician Vindicianus, in a letter to the Emperor 
Valentinianus ; and they are plainly not to be attributed either to 
Cato the censor, or Cato of Utica, since the names of Virgil, Macer, 
Ovid, and Lucan are mentioned in them. Their morality is pagan, 
and their style frigid and' unpoetical; nevertheless they have 
obtained a very undeserved reputation, and have not only been 
frequently reprinted with an extensive apparatus of criticism, but 
have been translated into a variety of languages. Maximns Pla- 
nudes, a monk of Constantinople, clothed them in Greek at the 
beginning of the XlVth century ; and no less a pen than that of 
Joseph Scaliger was subsequently engaged on the same unpro- 
ductive task. Besides these, there are two other Greek versions. 
The Disticha were printed at Cracow, in Polish and German, in 
1561. Corderius and many others turned them into French ; and, 
in English, Caxton printed in 1483, The Booke called Cat/ion, 
translated out of Frenche into Englyssh, in tliabhay of Westminstre ; 
for a copy of which volume the Duke of Devonshire paid 100 
guineas. They occur again in 1557 and 1560 ; and in 1585, we 
find Short sentencez of the wyz Cato, translated out of Latin into 
English by Will Bulloker in tru ortography . John Brinsley, in 
1612, did them into English " grammatically." Sir Richard Baker, 
in 1636, produced Cato variegatus ; and John Hoole, in 1659, 
printed them " with one row Latin and another English." Ben- 
jamin Franklin published a new English translation at Philadelphia, 
in 1735 ; and although he attributes it in his preface to a nameless 
writer, the version very probably was his own; and in 1759, they' 
appeared at Amsterdam, in Greek, English, German, Dutch, and 
French. 1 ] 

By the gradations which we have described, under the cherishing 
influence of Christian sentiments and imperial protection, the 
spark of poetry, which long had smouldered unperceived amidst the 
wrecks of barbarism and contest, had awakened into a flame, which 
neither the rude breath of war, nor the chilling influences of igno- 
rance, could utterly extinguish. Since the fatal day of Allia, never 
had the Empire suffered such reverses, as when the Augustan Muse 
revisited the light at the potent call of Claudius Claudianus. 
This highly-gifted person was born at Alexandria, in Egypt, 2 and 
possibly died there. Few other particulars of his life have been 
preserved. He was in favour with the eminent statesmen of his 
day, and especially with his hero, Stilico ; and it is much to the 

1 The paragraph between brackets is reprinted from the article Distich, in the 
lexicographical part of the Encyclop. Metr., 1st. edit. It is by the late 
Rev. Edward Smedley ; and is here introduced as pertinent to the subject and period. 

2 Spain and Florence have claimed the honour of Claudian's nativity. But if 
his own testimony is of any value, he was certainly born in Egypt ; and Suidas 
calls him 'Ahe^avdpevs. 



CLAUDIANUS. — MAMERCUS. — PRUDENTITJS. 203 

honour of Honorius and Arcadius, the emperors under whom he ciaudian. 
lived, that a statue of brass was erected to him. The following 
inscription, discovered at Home, is supposed to have been the 
dedication on the pedestal : 

CL. CLAVDIANI. V. C. 

CL CLAVDIANO V C TRI 
BVNO ET NOTARIO INTER CETERAS 
VIGENTES ARTES PRAEGLORIOSISSIMO 
POETARVM LICET AD MEMORIAM SEM 
PITERNAM CARMINA AB EODEM 
SCRIPTA SVFFICIANT ADTAMEN 
TESTIMONII GRATIA OB IVDICII SVI 
FIDEM DD NN ARCADIVS ET HONORIVS 
FELICISSIMI AC DOCTISSIMI 
IMPERATORES SENATV PETENTE 
STATVAM IN FORO DIVI TRAIANI 
ERIGI COLLOCARIQ IVSSERVNT. 

EIN ENI BIPriAIOIO NOON 

KAI MOTCAN OMHPOT 
KAATAIANON PHMH KAI 

BACIAHC E0ECAN. 



TO CLAUDIUS CLAUDIANUS, 

A MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MAN ; 1 

TRIBUNE AND IMPERIAL SECRETARY; 

AMONG OTHER HIGH LITERARY CLAIMS, 

BY PAR THE MOST GLORIOUS OP POETS. 

THOUGH THE POEMS COMPOSED BY HIM 

SUFFICE TO ETERNIZE HIS MEMORY, 

YET, AS A TRIBUTE TO THE FIDELITY OF HIS JUDICIOUS COUNSEL, 

THE MOST FORTUNATE AND MOST LEARNED EMPERORS 

ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS, 

AT REQUEST OF THE SENATE, 

HAVE COMMANDED THIS STATUE TO BE ERECTED, 

AND PLACED IN THE FORUM OF TRAJAN. 



ROME AND HER KINGS SET CLAUDIAN HERE ; COMBINED 
IN HIM WERE HOMER'S MUSE AND MARO'S MIND. 

The poems of Ciaudian, for the most part, consist of what might 
be called epic sketches, did not their elaborate polish forbid us to 
use the term ; but their brevity will scarcely admit them to the 
dignity of the Epopceia. These are : — 1. The Consulship of Oly- 
brius and Probinus. 2. The War with Kufinus. 3. The Third, 
Fourth, and Sixth Consulships of Honorius. 4. Epithalamia. 
5. The War with Gildo. 6. The Consulship of Theodorus. 7. The 

1 On this rendering of the abbreviation V. C, see the next page. 



I 



204 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



Mamercus. 



Prudentius. 



Rutilius. 



War with Eutropius. 8. The Consulship of Stilico. 9. The Gothic 
War. 10. A Panegyric on Serena. 11. The llape of Proserpine. 
12. The War with the Giants. Besides these, there is preserved a 
collection of Idyls, Epistles, and Epigrams, some of which can 
scarcely be genuine, as they are most strictly Christian ; while not 
only Augustine and Paulus Orosius i assert that Claudian was a 
pagan, but one of his own epigrams, in Jacobum, magutrum equitum, 
sufficiently attests his contempt of the Christian religion. It is 
probable that these poems are the work of Claudianus Mamer- 
cus, of Yienne, of whom Sidonius Apollinaris speaks in terms of 
the highest commendation. 

Contemporary with Claudian, (and scarcely, perhaps, a less 
illustrious name,) was Quintus Aurelius Prudentius Clemens. 
As a more detailed account of this poet will be found in the 
treatise on ecclesiastical Latin poetry, we shall only remark in this 
place that his merits are very fastidiously overlooked. His style 
will certainly bear no comparison with that of Claudian, and 
scarcely with that of any of his contemporaries, who all felt them- 
selves obliged to attempt the language of a happier period. 
Prudentius evidently wrote more for pleasure and for duty than for 
fame ; and his Latin may be considered a fair sample of the real 
state of the language at the time of the Gothic invasion. But this 
defect is abundantly compensated by a vein of the most fertile 
poetical enthusiasm, and his lyrics alone entitle him to honourable 
mention among Latin poets. 

A conspicuous poetical writer of this age was Claudius Euti- 
lius Numatianus, (or, as the name is given by Zumpt, Ptutilius 
Claudius Namatianus,) a native of Gaul, although of what place 
cannot be with certainty determined. His father w r as a man of 
rank, and Proconsul of Etruria. In the MSS. the letters V. C. are 
added to his name ; by which is generally understood Viri Con- 
sularis ; but as his name nowhere appears on the Fasti, and the 
passages adduced from his work point rather to the office of Pm- 
fectus urbis, Wernsdorf supposes this abbreviation to signify Viri 
Clarissimi. Yet it is very possible that the passages alluded to led 
the transcriber into the belief that Sutilius had been Consul. 
Certain it is that the poet enjoyed the office of Prcefectus. The 
rest of his life is involved in considerable obscurity. His poem, 
called Itinerarium, (or, according to Zumpt's edition, Carmen de 
reditu suo,) descriptive of his journey to Gaul, was written in 417. 
There can be no doubt that he was a pagan when he composed 
this work ; his manner of speaking of the monks might possibly, 
though improbably, be used by a Christian ; but a Christian of that 
time would have been careful to separate their fanaticism from his 






Aug. de Civ. Dei, v. 26. Paul. Oros. vii. 34. 



POETRY OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 205 

religion. His reflections on the Jews and their sabbath are equally 
convincing. Nevertheless, Wernsdorf entertains the strange sup- 
position, that the Christian poetry of Eutilius came into the hands 
of Theodulf of Orleans, who mentioned him among other poets of 
the church, in the following lines : 

Sedulius, Rutilius, Paulinus, Arator, Avitus, 

Et Fortuaatus, tuque, Juvence tonans. — iv. i. 13. 

But assuredly Theodulf knew more of his metre than to place 
Eutilius in such a situation. The name is certainly corrupt, and 
should be, most probably, Eutilus. 

The excitement which temporary patronage had afforded to genius Poetry of the 
was, however, soon withdrawn, and the inundations of barbarism swept Vth centur r- 
from the Eoman world the fast-expiring sparks of the poetic fire. The 
beginning of the Yth century witnessed the second decline of classical 
Eoman poetry, and the end of the same period its utter dissolution. 
Not, indeed, that there were wanting writers of Latin verses ; but 
the language had been almost everywhere extinguished as a native 
dialect, and its purity so materially impaired, that the few who 
aspired to literary excellence wrote the language of a departed age. 
Few words will sum the poetical history of this era, which is 
rather a barren catalogue of names than an historical narrative. 
To this period, probably, we may refer the grammarian Phocas, 
who composed (before Priscian wrote) a metrical Life of Virgil, 
introduced by a Sapphic Ode. To it certainly belong Flayius 
Merobaedes, author of Panegyricus in Considatum JEtii, and 
some lyric and elegiac poems ; 1 Priscian, the grammarian, 
who wrote poems, Be Laude Imp. Anastas'vi? Be Ponderibus et 
Mensuris, Periegesis e Bionysio, and some lyrics; Marcianus 
Capella, author of the Epithalamium of Philology and Hermes, 
and some epigrams ; Prosper Tyro, whose beautiful little address 
to his wife is still extant ; Sidonius Apollinaris, a writer who 
imitated a purer period with some success ; and several ecclesiastical 
poets, of whom notices will be found in the next division of this 
volume. For the poetical spirit now found refuge in the Church, 
w T here it lingered under peculiar forms long after it had disappeared 
from the World : and to this phase of Latin poetry a special 
department of this work is now assigned, as it is altogether a 
different thing from subsequent classical imitations, and, though 
contemporaneous, wholly independent of them, and possessing an 
inherent vitality. It was therefore necessary to the completeness 
of our subject that mediaeval hymnology should not be passed over. 
From this period, however, we may date the extinction of all 

1 Edited by Niebuhr, from a palimpsest. 

2 Edited by Endlicher, from a palimpsest. 



206 



DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 



vth^ntur 16 c ^ ass ^ ca ^ Latin poetry. A Boetius, a Corippus, l or a Venantius, 
occasionally borrowed light from the contrasting darkness around 
him ; a Luxorius imitated coarsely the coarse productions of better 
days ; but the Eoman Calliope lay shrouded and sepulchred until 
Petrarch and Dante called into existence from her ashes the less 
majestic, but not less beautiful, Erato of Tuscany. 

1 A poem by this author, called Johannis, was in 1820 discovered at Milan by 
M. Mazzuchelli. It is extremely valuable, as it affords information respecting a 
period wherein all other history fails. As a poem, it is not undeserving attention. 
Corippus also wrote De Laudibus Justini Augusti minoris. 




207 



MSS. } EDITIONS, &c, OF THE POST-AUGUSTAN POETS. 



COLUMELLA. 

Ed. Princ. Jenson. Venet. 1472. In the " Rei Rusticse Scriptores." 

The Tenth Book, separately. Romse. Cir. 1472. 
Scriptores Rei Rust. Gesner, impr. by Ernesti. Lips. 1773. 
Schneider. Lips. 1794. 



LUCAK 

Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz, under superintendence of Andrew, 

Bp. of Aleria. Romae. 1469. 
Bersniann. Lips. 1584, 1589. 
Grotius. Antwerp. 1614 ; and Lugd. Bat. 1626. 
Cortius. Lips. 1726. 
Oudendorp. Lugd. Bat. 1728. 
Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1740. 
Bentley. Strawberry Hill. 1760. 
Renouard. Paris. 1795. 
Illycinus. Vindol. 1811. 
Weber. Lips. 1821—1831. 
Weise. Lips. 1835. 
The most complete subsidia to this author are supplied by Weber's edition. 

Oudendorp and Burmann contain much that is valuable. 



PERSIUS. 

Ed. Princ. Hahn. Romse. (But this date not printed.) Cir. 1470. 

There are a great number of editions before 1500. 

Casaubon. Paris. 1605. 1 Re-edited by Duebner. Lips. 1839. 

Konig. Gotting. 1803. 

Passow. Lips. 1809. 

Achaintre. Paris. 1812. 

Orelli. Eclogg. Poett. Latt. Turici. 1833. 

Plum. Havn. 1827. 

Jahn. 1 Lips. 1843. 

Heinrich. 1 Lips. 1844. 

PETRONIUS. 

(For the early bibliography of this author see what is said in the account 

of him, pp. 153, seqq.) 
Burmann. Amst. 1743. 
Antonius. Lips. 1781. 



1 These form a complete body of subsidia as well. 



208 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE POST-AUGUSTAN POETS. 

Subsidia : — 

Janelli. Codex Perottinus. 

Niebuhr. Klein. Historiscb. Scbrift. i. p. 337. 

Weicbert. Poett. Latt. Reliqq. 

|^ r JRbeiniscb. Mus. (Neue Folge), vol. ii. 



VALERIUS FLACCUS. 

Ed. Princ. Ugo Rugerius and Doninus Bertochus, fol. 1472. Second 

Edition. More rare, S. Jacobus de Ripoli, about 1431. Florentiae. 
Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1724. (Tbe most complete.) 
Harles. Altenb. 1781. 
Wagner. Gutting. 1805. 
Lemaire.- Paris. 1824. 
Tbe VHItb Book, witb critical notes, &c, by Weicbert. Misn. 1 818. 



SILIUS ITALICUS. 

Ed. Princ. Andrew, Bp. of Algeria, editor ; Sweynbeym and Pannartz, 
printers. Romse. 1471. Tbere are tbree otber editions by tbe same, 
1471, 1474, 1480. 

Cellarius. Lips. 1695. 

Drakenborcb. Traj. ad Rben. 1717. 

Ruperti. Gotting. 1795. 



JUVENAL. 

Edd. Prince. Six are mentioned; but tbe following tbree bave claims 

wbicb cannot be adjusted. 
A folio in Roman cbaracters, witbout date or name. 
A 4to in Roman cbaracters, witbout date ; name Ulricus Han. Tberefor* 

printed at Rome. 
A 4to in Roman cbaracters, witbout name or date of place. 1470. 

Supposed to be Vindelin de Spira's. 
Tbere are many old editions. Tbe most valuable for practical purposes 
are : — 

Henninius. Lugd. Bat. 1695. 
Ruperti. Lips. 1819. 
Acbaintre. Paris. 1810. 
Weber. Weimar. 1825. 
Heinricb. Bonn. 1839. 

Subsidia : — 

Franke's two dissertations. Lips. 1820 ; and Dorpat. 1827. Hermann, 

Disputatio de Juvenalis Satirae VII mae temporibus. Gott. 1843. 

Pinzger, in Jabn's Jabrbucber fiir Pbilologie, vol. xiv. p. 261. 

Duntzer, sixtb suppl. vol. to tbe same, p. 373. Do'llen, Beitrage zui 

Kritik und Erklarung der Satiren des J. Jun. Juvenalis. Kiew. 1846 



MS3., EDITIONS,, ETC., OF THE POST- AUGUSTAN POETS. 209 



MAETIAL. 

There is a curious MS. of Martial in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. 
There are three Editiones Principes, all without date and name ; one 

supposed to be the work of Ulrich Han. The first dated edition, 

thought by some to be the princeps, was printed at Ferrara, 1471 

After this there are a good many early editions. 
Gruterus. Francofurti. 1602. 
Scriverius. Amst. 1629. 
Raderus. Col. Agr. 1628. 
Schrevelius. Cum notis Variorum. 1670. 

Lemaire. Paris. 1825. " The most useful on the whole." — Prof. Ramsay. 
Schneidewin. Gren. 1842. (Very complete, and contains an account 

of MSS.) 



STATIUS. 

Editio Princeps Sylvarum. No name or date. About 1470. These 
poems are found with Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, in 1472, 
1475, 1481 ; and with Catullus in 1473. By Domitius Calderinus. 
Rom., Arnold Pannartz. 1475. 

Markland. Lond. 1728. 

Hurd. Lips. 1817. 

Sillig. Dresd. 1827. 

Ed. Princ. Thebaidos et Achilleidos. No name or date. Probably about 
1470. Many editions in the 15th century. 

Ed. Princ. Operum. No name or date. After 1475. 

Lemaire, in Latin Classics. Paris. 1825-30. 



NEMESIAN. 

Ed. Princ. Aldi Haeredes. Venet. 1534. 
Poett. Latt. Minn. Burmann. 1731. 

Wernsdorf. 1780. 

Stern. Gratii Falisci efc Olympii Nemesiani carmina venatica cum duobus 
fragmentis de aucupio. Hal. Sax. 1832. 



CALPURNIUS. 

The works of this author are edited with other writers by Logus, Ulitius, 

and Havercamp. Also in 
Poett. Latt. Minn. Wernsdorf. 1780. 
Schmid. Nemesiani et Calpurnii Eclogae. Mitav. and Lips. 1774. (This 

vol. contains the works of Calpurnius only, the Eclogues attributed to 

Nemesian being by him.) 
Beck. Lips. 1803. 
Grauff. Bern. 1831. 
Gliiser. Gotting. 1842. 

[r.l.] 1> 



210 



MSS.j EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE POST-AUGUSTAN POETS. 



Ed. Princ. Girardixms. 

1472. 
Venetiis et Burdig. 1580. 
Tollius. Amst. 1671. 
Souchay (in usum Delph.) 1730. 



AUSONIUS. 

Venet, 



Ed. Princ. Mosella), Ugoletus. 

1499. 
Tross. Hamm. 1821. 
Booking. Berolini. 1828. 



Parma?. 



AVIENUS. 

Ed. Princ. Venet. 1488. Friesemann. Amst. 1786. 

Madrit. 1634. Giles. Oxon. 1835. 

The works of this writer also appear in Hudson's Geographic! minores, 
Maittaire's Opera Poetarum Latinorum, Matthise's Aratus, and Bern- 
hardy's Geographici Graeci minores. 

CLAUDIAN. 

Ed. Princ. Vicent. 1482. 

Camers. Vienna?. 1510. 

Camers, cum notis Cluverii. Paris. 1602. 

Barthius. Francof. 1650. 

Heinsius. 1650 and 1665. 

Gesner. Lips. 1759. 




THE 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY 



OF 



THE MIDDLE AGES. 



REY. JOHN MASON KEALE, M.A. 



WiKDEN OF SACKVILI.E COLLEGE, EAST GRINSTEET). 



p 2 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETS. 



DECOMPOSITION PERIOD. 

COMMODIAN .... FLOURISHED AEOUT A.D. 270 

JUVENCUS A.D. 332 

S. HILARY A.D. 360 

S. AMBROSE A.D. 400 

PRUDENTIUS BORN A.D. 348 

S. PAULINUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 400 

SEDULIUS A.D. 430 

DRACONTIUS A.D. 450 

ARATOR A.D. 540 

S. GREGORY A.D. 600 



RENOVATION PERIOD. 



FORTUNATUS DIED 


A.D. 


609 


V. BEDE BORN 


A.D. 


666 


S. THEODULPH OF ORLEANS . FLOURISHED ABOUT 


A.D. 


750 


CHARLEMAGNE . . ACCEDED TO THE EMPIRE 


A.D. 


SOO 


S. PETER DAMIANI . LIVED FROM A.D. 1002 TO 


A.D. 


1072 


S. FULBERT OF CHARTRES . FLOURISHED ABOUT 


A.D. 


1020 


MARBODUS OF RENNES A. D. 


1035- 


-1123 


HILDEBERT OF TOURS A.D. 


1057- 


-1134 


S. BERNARD . . LIVED FROM A.D. 1091 TO 


A.D. 


1153 


ADAM OF S. VICTOR . . . DIED ABOUT 


A.D. 


1190 


THOMAS OF CELANO . . FLOURISHED ABOUT 


A.D. 


1230 


S. THOMAS AQUINAS DIED 


A.D. 


1274 




ECCLESIASTICAL LATIX POETRY 



In proceeding from the classical to the mediaeval times of Latin Medieval 
poetry, we must bear in mind, as a fundamental principle, that aadnew 
the language which we shall now consider is not a mere barbarous language, 
patois, the corruption of a purer dialect, unworthy of study, and 
irreducible to rule. Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry has a language of 
its own ; no more to be compared with, or judged by, the dialect of 
Virgil or Horace, than Ariosto or Camoens can be. It has rules, 
subtle, elaborate, rules, of its own ; it has a grammar of its own,; 
its ornaments are original; its diction unborrowed ; and we venture 
fearlessly to say that in strength and freshness it surpasses the Latin 
poetry of a more classical age ; poetry whose inspiration, form, metre, 
and ornaments were essentially Greek. But, in like manner as the 
Spanish. Lrench, Portuguese, and Italian languages, before they 
attained to their present status, did necessarily pass through a stage of 



214 



formed 

gradually, 



and revivify, 
ing the 
remains of 
the old, 



by falling 
back on the 
most ancient 
form. 



The creation 
of the 
Church, 



necessarily 
new, 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



it cannot be 
blamed for 
novelty. 



barbarism in their formation from the old Latin, so it was with me- 
diaeval poetry. If we may use the words without irreverence, it was 
sown in dishonour, that it might be raised in glory ; it was sown in 
weakness, that it might be raised in power. It could not at once 
reject the shackles of metre ; it could not at once arrange its own 
accentual laws ; and it took centuries in developing the full power 
of the new element that it introduced, namely, rhyme. Great 
writers as existed before this was done, we feel that they have 
not a language flexible to their thoughts, nor worthy of their works. 
And it is a curious thing that, in rejecting the foreign laws in which 
Latin had so long gloried, the Christian poets were in fact merely 
reviving, in an inspired form, the early melodies of republican 
Rome ; — the rhythmical ballads which were the delight of the 
men that warred with the Samnites, and the Volscians, and 
Hannibal. 

Nothing can be truer than Mr. Trench's words : l " But it was 
otherwise in regard to the Latin language. That, when the Church 
arose, requiring of it to be the organ of her Divine word, to tell 
out all the new, and as yet undreamt of ideas, which were stirring in 
her bosom ; demanding of it that it should reach her needs, needs 
which had hardly or not at all existed, while the language was in 
process of formation — that was already full formed, had reached its 
climacteric, and was indeed verging, though as yet imperceptibly, 
toward decay, with all the stiffness of commencing age already 
upon it. Such the Church found it — something to which a new 
life might perhaps be imparted, but the first life of which was well 
nigh overlived. She found it a garment narrower than she could 
wrap herself withal, and yet the only one within reach. But she 
did not forego the expectation of one day obtaining all which she 
wanted, nor yet even for the present did she sit down contented 
with the inadequate and insufficient. Herself young and having 
the spirit of life, she knew that the future was her own — that she 
was set in the world for this very purpose of making all things new 
— that what she needed and did not find, there must in her lie 
the power of educing from herself — that, however, not all at once, 
yet little by little, she could weave whatever vestments were 
required by her for comeliness and beauty. And we do observe 
the language under the new influence, as at the breath of a second 
spring, putting itself forth anew ; the meaning of words enlarging 
and dilating ; old words coming to be used in new significations, 
obsolete words reviving, new words being coined — with much in 
all this to offend the classical taste, which yet, being inevitable, 
ought not to offend, and of which the gains far more than compen- 
sated the losses. There was a new thing, and that being so, it 
needed that there should be a new utterance as well. To be 



1 Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 5. 



INTRODUCTION. 215 

offended with this is, in truth, to be offended with Christianity, 
which made this to be inevitable." 

We shall make no apology for quoting another passage from the 
same eloquent writer. 1 

" We can trace step by step the struggle between the two prin- 
ciples of heathen and Christian life, which were here opposed to 
one another. As the old classical Koman element grew daily weaker 
in the new Christian world which now had been founded ; as the 
novel element of Christian life strengthened and gained ground ; as 
poetry became popular again, not the cultivated entertainment of 
the polite and lettered few, a graceful ornament of the scholar and 
the gentleman, but that in which all men desired to express, or to 
find expressed for them, their hopes and fears, their joys and their 
sorrows, and all the immortal longings of their common humanity ; 
— a confinement became less and less endurable within the old and 
stereotyped forms, which, having had for their own ends their own 
fitness and beauty, were yet ordained for the expressing of far other 
thoughts and feelings and sentiments, than those which now stirred 
at far deeper depths the spirits and the hearts of men. The whole 
scheme on which the Latin prosodiacal poetry was formed, was felt 
to be capricious, imposed from without ; and the poetry which now It invented 
arose demanded — not to be without law ; for, demanding this, it its own laws, 
would have demanded its own destruction, and not to be poetry at 
all ; but it demanded that its laws and restraints should be such as 
its own necessities, and not those of quite a different condition, 
required." 

Thus the Church threw herself on the original genius of the 
Latin language : — on the universal recognition of accent, in pre- 
ference to the arbitrary and national restrictions of quantity : — her and deve- 
hymns were intended to be sung, and this again developed the ope r ' 
musical powers of sound, and hence principally rhyme : and thus a 
new language sprang up under her hands. 

We may therefore divide ecclesiastical poetry into two periods : 
the first, in which the progress of decomposition was, with what- 
ever promise of restoration, painfully going on : the second, when 
the new life had actually begun. The first ends with S. Gregory the 
Great, who died a.d. 606 ; the second may commence in France with 
Venantius Fortunatus, who lived somewhat earlier. 

We will first take a glance at the principal writers of the former 
period. 

1 Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 11. 




St. Jerom. 



EIEST PEEIOD.— THE DECOMPOSITION 



It is remarkable that one of the earliest writers of Christian 
verse should have completely emancipated himself from the shackles 
of metre ; it is perhaps more remarkable that his successors should 
not have seen somewhat of the advantages which this new system 
opened for them, and should have relapsed into classicalism. 

commodia- Commodianus, by birth an African, who lived about a.d. 270, has 
left a poem called Instructiones, the subject of which is an Apology 
for Christianity. It is written in hexameters, which are to be 
read accentually, without any reference to quantity ; and is divided 
into eighty sections, each being headed with a short title, 

Iccentuai which forms an acrostich for the verses subordinate to it. No- 
thing, in the way of poetry, can be more utterly worthless ; but 
there are a few allusions which render it valuable to the Christian 
antiquary, and a vein of pious simplicity pervades the whole. The 
thirty-eighth section may serve as a specimen : — 

JUDjEIS. 

I mprobi semper et dura cervice recalces, 

V inci vos non vultis, sic exhseredes eritis. 

D ixit Esaias incrassato corde vos esse. 

A spicitis Legem, quam Moses allisit iratus : 

E t idem Domiuus dedit illi legem secundam : 

I n ilia spem posuit, quod vos subsannati reicitis ; 

S ed ideo digni non eritis regno ccelesti. 



nu.- 



the first 



JUVENCUS. 217 

The clue to the author's name is obscurely given in the last Commodia- 
section. The heading is Nomen Gazai : the acrostich : — Itsirhc nL 
svcidnem sunaidommoc : i.e., if read backwards, Commodianus, His acros- 
mendicvs Christi. It is supposed that Gazceus, derived from gaza, tlei f' 
treasure, is a kind of punning allusion to Commodianus, which may 
in like manner be derived from commodum; and that the title, 
mendicvs Christi, pursuing the same train of thought, may have 
reference to the Apostle's words. " What things were gain to me, 
those I counted loss for Christ." 

CAIUS VETTIUS AqUILINUS JUVENCTJS. — Almost all that isJuvencus: 

known of him is, that he was a Spaniard, and that he nourished 
about a.d. 332. 1 The only work which we can certainly ascribe to 
him is the Evangelical History : a heroic poem in four books (3226 
lines), harmonising our Lord's Life from His Birth to His 
Ascension. There have been besides attributed to him : — 

(1). A Versification of the Book of Genesis, in heroic metre 
(1441 lines), very poor, and certainly of later date. (2). A poem 
on the praises of the Lord, possibly of Juvencus. (3). The 
Triumph of Christ in Hell, of which more presently. 

The Evangelical History maintains a low mediocrity throughout ; his Evange- 
never degenerating into any very miserable poverty, never for a 
moment rising into anything like sublimity. Although Juvencus 
professes to give a harmony of Gospel History, he principally 
follows S. Matthew ; and is more concerned with the deeds than 
with the words of our Lord. In one 2 passage he is valuable to 
Biblical scholars, as agreeing with the Italic version, where it 
widely departs from the modern reading. He keeps Virgil pretty 
closely in his eye, and takes fewer licences of quantity than any 
other Christian poet, a fact which, as we have seen, is at best 
equivocal praise. He seems to have been a pious and well read man ; 
but without a spark of real poetry. Perhaps his Prologue contains 
some of his best lines. 

1 S. Jerom, in the addition to the Chronicle of Eusebius, says, under the year 
332 : " Juvencus Presbyter, natione Hispanus, Evangelia versibus explicat." And 
Juvencus himself writes, at the end of his work : 

Hsec mihi pax Christi tribuit, pax haec mihi saecli, 
Quam fovet indulgens terra? regnator apertse 
Constantinus, adest cui gratia digna merenti ; 

which proves that the poem must have been written after the defeat of Licinius, 
a.d. 324. 

2 S. Matthew, v. 27 — 9. The Italic addition, " Vos autcm qiucritis dc 
pusillo crescere, et de inajore minores esse," is thus given : 

At vos ex minimis opibus transcendere vultis, 
Et sic e summis lapsi comprenditis iuios. 



218 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

Juvencus. Immortale nihil mundi compage tenetur, 

Non orbis, non regna hominum, non aurea Roma, 
Non mare, non tellus, non ignea sidera coeli. 
Nam statuit Genitor rerum irrevocable tempus 
Quo cunctum torrens rapiet flamma ultima mundum. 
Sed tamen innumeros homines sublimia facta, 
Et virtutis honos in tempora longa frequentant, 
Accumulant quorum laudes nomenque poetae. 

* * * * 

.Nee metus, ut mundi rapiant incendia secum 
Hoc opus : hoc etenim forsan me subtrahet igni 
Tunc, quum flammivoma descendet nube coruscans 
Judex, altithroni Genitoris gloria, Christus. 

The Triumph The Triumph of Christ is in a far higher strain, and has some- 

noUns!** thing quite Miltonic in its conception. Satan is represented as 

convoking an infernal council, when our Lord, having expired on 

the Cross, is about to descend into hell. Resistance is allowed to 

be in vain. 

Nee mora : cum sonitu postes cecidere solutis 
Cardinibus, magnamque dedit collapsa ruinam 
Janua, et admittunt concussa palatia Christum. 

While Furies and Gorgons are flying in confusion — 

Sed gaudent animse sanctje, manesque piorum ; 
Primus Adam ante alios palmasad sidera la;tus 
Exhibet, et Dominum devota est voce precatus : 
Expectate venis miseris, O Sancte Redemptor, 
Da requiem, finemque malis : fer ad astra redemptos. 

Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and a long line of Old Testament 
Saints salute the Conqueror of Death, while 

Regius ante alios vates, notissima proles 
Stirpis Iessese, citharam tangebat eburno 
Pectine, et ad numeros una omnes voce precati 
Dulce melos pangunt concordi carmine vates. 
Ante alios juvenes, Christum qui nuper ad undas 
Tinxerat, hie laetis concentibus aguifer ibat : 
Salve Erebi Victor, Domitor salve inclyte mortis, 
Destructor scelerum, salve, O fortissime Vindex 
Amissse vitas ; salve, O Spes una salutis, 
Aspice plasma tuum, sancte et venerande Creator, 
Et post tot gemitus nos due ad regna polorum. 

Christ's words of comfort and the resurrection follow in brief 
and the poet concludes by telling how, as warriors and kings hang 
up their trophies, so our Lord set up his Triumphal Cross, with 
the spoils of his enemies dependent therefrom : 

Fronde alia inferni dirempti janua pendet, 

Postibus attritis, cum cardinibusque, serisque. 

Fronde alia ira Dei, et sibi mens male conscia pendent, 



S. HILARY. 219 

Omnia quae Christi roseo sunt tersa cruore. Juvencus. 

Fronde alia Patris prirnsevi syngrapha pendet 
Dilaniata rnodis rniseris deletaque prorsus. 1 

It must be confessed that the paraphrases, so very necessary to 
his subject, employed by Juvencus to designate our Lord, are 
varied and elegant. Huic Auctor vita turn, talia reddit Iesus — 
Turn sic discipnlis vita spes unica fatur — Eespicit eterna justorum 
gloria vita — legum sed turn servator Jesus incipit — Progreditur 
Templo terrarum lumen Iesus — Regnantis semper Domini certissima 
proles. 

S. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, passes for the author of several s. Hilary : 
hymns : many of which are clearly later by many centuries than 
the middle of the fourth, in which he flourished. 2 The following uncertainty 
is the commencement of the Hymn which seems attributed to b y mns! 1S 
aim on the best authority : 

Lucis Largitor splendide, O glorious Father of the light, 

Cujus sereno lumine From whose effulgence, calm and bright, 

Post lapsa noctis tempora Soon as the hours of night are fled, 

Dies refusus panditur : The brilliance of the dawn is shed : 

Tu verus mundi Lucifer ; Thou art the dark world's truer ray : 

Non is, qui parvi sideris No radiance of that lesser day, 

Venturae lucis nuntius That heralds, in the morn begun, 

Angusto fulget lumine : The advent of our darker sun : 

Sed toto sole clarior, But, brighter than its noontide gleam, 

Lux ipse totus et dies, Thyself full daylight's fullest beam, 

Interna nostri pectoris The inmost mansions of our breast 

Illuminans praecordia. Thou by Thy grace illuminest. 



1 Notwithstanding the arguments which would prove Juvencus to be the author 
of this poem, its ascription to him in MSS, its conclusion, so exactly like that 
of the Evangelical History, 

Hos hominum Christus saevos absorbuit hostes, 

Ut neque jam possint ultra damnare fideles, 

His equidem tentare datum, sed vincere nostrum est, 

which equally seems to allude to Constantine, — and in spite of the recurrence of 
one or two uncommon words in both writers, we cannot but think that the entire 
difference of the rhythm, and the great poetical superiority, clearly show a different 
authorship. And the very nature of the idea would incline us to bring the poem 
down as late as the fourteenth or fifteenth century. In accordance with this 
view, is the singular use of the word Agnifer, as applied to S. John Baptist, 
which appears taken from mediaeval pictures. 

2 Thus Sir Alexander Croke : " Saint Hilary, who was Bishop of Poictiers from 

the year 355 to 368, a man of genius The rhymes in his verses are very 

regular and perfect, as in the Epiphany, — Jesus refuisit omnium Pius Redemptor 
gentium: Totum genus fidelium Laudes celebrent dramatum." It is because the 
rhymes here are so very perfect, that it is impossible, as we shall presently see, 
that this hymn, and others like it, could have been written by S. Hilary. 






220 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETUY. 



S. Ambrose : 



difficulty of 
determining 
his true 
hymns. 



Their 

austere 

simplicity, 




S. Am"bross. 



If we were able to determine with certainty the genuine Hymns 
of S. Ambrose, we should obtain a point of incalculable service 
for the investigation of ancient Hymnology : the compositions 

which have been attributed to him 
are almost countless, and range 
from the fourth to the fourteenth 
century. Indeed, such was his fame 
as a hymnographer, that the words 
Ambrosianum and Hymnus were, at 
one time, nearly synonymous. Car- 
dinal Thomasius, who had perhaps 
as good means of forming a judg- 
ment as any scholar, considers the 
following as most justly attributable 
to him. 1. Deus creator omnium. 
2. Eterne rerum conditor. 3. Jam 
surgit hora tertia. 4. Bis ternas 
horas explicans. 5. Veni, Eedemp- 
tor gentium. 6. Jam sexta sensim 
volvitur. 7. Ter hora trina volvitur. 
8. Hie est dies verus Dei. 9. Christe, qui lux es et dies. 
10. Eex eterne Domine. 11. Mediae noctis tempus est. 
12. Eulgentis auctor setheris. 13. Deus, qui certis legibus. 
14. Splendor Paternse gloriae. 15. Eterne lucis conditor. 16. A 
solis ortus cardine. 17. Obduxere polumnubila cceli. 18. Squalent 
arva soli pulvere multo. 19. Christe, ccelestis medicina Patris. 
20. Eterna Christi munera. To this we add, 21. Agnes, beatae 
Virginis. Of these we may, from the nature of things, as shown 
in the preceding section, exclude those which rhyme regularly — and 
(from the consideration of the most clearly authenticated hymns 
of S. Ambrose) those which are not metrical. Eor both these 
reasons we may reject the Hymn marked 9, which is clearly a com- 
paratively late composition ; and, for want of metre, those numbered 

4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15. Again, 17 and 18 have not the least touch 
of S. Ambrose's manner : nor has 19, which also several times 
offends against the laws of prosody. We are therefore reduced 
to ten hymns, and one of these, 16, is certainly not altogether of 

5. Ambrose. 

Eor a general character of the Bishop's poetry, we cannot do 
better than quote Mr. Trench's very able critique. " It is some 
little while before one returns with a hearty consent and liking to 
the almost austere simplicity which characterises the hymns of S. 
Ambrose. It is felt as though there were a certain coldness in 
them, an aloofness of the author from his subject, a refusal to blend 
and fuse himself with it. The absence too of rhyme, for which the 
almost uniform use of a metre, very far from the richest among the 



S. AMBROSE. 



221 



; , Latin lyric forms, and one with singularly few resources for pro- s> Ambrose 
educing variety of pause or cadence, seems a very insufficient 
s compensation, adds to this feeling of disappointment. The ear and 
j the heart seem alike to be without their due satisfaction. Only 
i after a while does one learn to feel the grandeur of this unadorned 
! metre, and the profound, though it may have been more instinctive 
i , than conscious, wisdom of the poet in choosing it ; or to appreciate 
ji; that noble confidence in the surpassing interest of his theme, which 
[Ijhas rendered him indifferent to any but its simplest setting forth. 
J It is as though, building an altar to the living Grod, he would observe 
; lthe Levitical precept, and rear it of unhewn stones, upon which no 
. .tool had been lifted. The great objects of faith in their simplest 
1 expression are felt by him so sufficient to stir all the deepest affec- ar 



tions of the heart, that any attempt to dress them up, to array them 
in moving language, were merely superfluous. The passion is 
there, but it is latent and represt, a fire burning inwardly, the glow 
of an austere enthusiasm, which reveals itself indeed, but not to 
every careless beholder." l 

Perhaps the most sublime hymn of S. Ambrose is the following. 
The translation is from the Hymnal of the Ecclesiological Society. 



limity. 



Veni, Redemptor gentium : 
Ostende partum Virginia : 
Miretur omne sseculum : 
Talis decet partus Deum. 

Non ex virili semine, 
Sed mystico spiramine, 
Verbum Dei factum est caro, 
Fructusque ventris floruit. 

Alvus tumescit Virginis : 
Claustrum pudoris permanet : 
Vexilla virtutum micant : 
Versatur in Templo Deus. 

Procedit e thalamo suo, 
Pudoris aula regia, 
Geminae gigas substantia, 
Alacris ut currat viam. 

Egressus ejus a Patre, 
Regressus ejus ad Patrem : 
Excursus usque ad inferos, 
Recursus ad sedem Dei. 

iEqualis eterno Patri, 
Carnis stropheo 2 cingere, 
Infirma nostri corporis 
Virtute firmans perpeti. 



Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth, 
Come, testify Thy Virgin Birth : 
All lands admire, — all time applaud : 
Such is the birth that fits a God. 

Begotten of no human will, 
But of the Spirit, mystic still, 
The Word of God, in flesh arrayed 
The promised fruit to man displayed. 

The Virgin's womb that burden gained 
With Virgin honour all unstained : 
The banners there of virtues glow : 
God in His Temple dwells below. 

Proceeding from His Chamber free, 
The Royal Hall of chastity, 
Giant of two-fold substance, straight 
His destined way He runs elate. 

From God the Father He proceeds, 
To God the Father back He speeds : 
Proceeds — as far as very hell : 
Speeds back — to Light ineffable. 

O equal to the Father, Thou ! 
Gird on Thy fleshly mantle now ! 
The weakness of our mortal state 
With deathless might invigorate. 



1 Sacred Latin Poetry. 
- We are inclined, however, to believe that trophceo, because the more difficult, 
is also the more genuine reading ; in which case we may translate, <k Gird on Thy 
fleshly trophy now." 



222 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



S. Ambrose. 



Prudentius. 






Prsesepe jam fulget tuum, 
Lumenque nox spiret novum, 
Quod nulla nox interpolet, 
Fideque jugi luceat. 



Thy cradle here shall glitter bright, 
And darkness breathe a newer light, 
Where endless faith shall 6hine serene, 
And twilight never intervene. 



In the Hymns of S. Ambrose we have very frequent rhymes, — 
not as a necessity, not perhaps as an accurately denned beauty, but 
as an almost unconscious development of the new system. Thus 
we find 

Eterna Chiisti muncra 
Et Martyrum victorias . . . 

Ecclesiarum principes 

Belli triumphules duces .... 

Terrore victo ssecuK 
Poenisque spretis corpora's, 

all in one hymn. It is curious from that time to observe the 
increasing importance attaching itself to rhyme. 

Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, the prince of primi- 
tive Christian poets. After all that has been written on his life, 
little more is known than that which he himself tells us in his pre- 
face to the Catliemerinon. A native of Spain, but of what city is 
uncertain, he was born a.d. 348, l and educated for the law. 

iEtas prima crepantibus 
Flevit sub ferulis : mox docuit toga 
Infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine. 

He then was magistrate in two cities, probably in Spain : 

Bis legum moderamine 
Framos nobilium reximus urbium : 

and lastly he obtained a military appointment, such as a civilian 
might hold (piilititz civilis, palatini, or prcesidialis) under the 
Emperor. At length, in his fifty- seventh year, he applied himself 
to Christian poetry, with a success unparalleled up to his time and 
for long afterwards. 

His poems may conveniently be divided into two classes — the 
heroic and the lyric. In the former he possesses no distinguishing 
excellence j he is tame, prosaic, unimpassioned — argues feebly, and 






1 The old reading — 

" Oblitum veteris Messalise consulis arguens, 
Sub quo prima dies mihi," 

puzzled the commentators, inasmuch as no such consul as Messalia could be found. 
Messalice was seen by Dupin to be a corruption of Me Salice. Saliawas consul 
in 348. 



PRUDENTIUS. 223 

reflects in a common-place manner. In his hymns it is that he Prudentius. 
lives. His heroic poems comprise : 

1. The Apotheosis ; a defence of our Lord's divinity against His heroic 
various heretics; the Patripassians (1 — 177) ; the Sabellians poems * 
(178—320); the Jews (321—551); Judaising Christians and 
Gnostics (552—952); the Phantasiasts (952—1063); and con- 
cludes with a spirited allusion to the Resurrection : — 

Qui jubet ut redeam, non reddet debile quicquam, 
Nam si debilitas redit, instauratio non est. 
Quod casus rapuit, quod morbus, quod dolor hausit, 
Quod truncavit edax senium populante veterno, 
Omne revertenti reparata in membra redibit. 
Debet enim mors victa fidem, ne fraude sepulchri 

Reddat curtum aliquid : 

Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet 
Cum Christo reditura Deo : nam vos gerit ille 
Et secum revocat : morbos ridete minaces : 
Inflictos casus contemnite : atra sepulchra 
Despicite : exurgens quo Christus piovocat, ite. 

He that commands return, will render back 

No mortal weakness : for, where weakness is, 

There restoration is not. That which chance 

Hath spoiled, or long disease, or grief hath drained, 

Or wearing eld hath maimed by slow decay, 

Shall all return and all return repaired. 

For conquered death is pledged, the tomb's contents 

To render undiminished 

Away with fear, each member ! Know that all 
With Christ shall be restored : He tends you now, 
And He will render back. Then mock disease : 
Contemn each fatal chance : despise the tomb : 
And where a rising Lord invites you, go. 

2. The Hamartigeneia, on original sin, against the Marcionites ; 
it contains 966 lines. 

3. The Psychomachia ; an allegorical poem on the contest of 
Faith with its various enemies in the soul (915 lines). 

4. The DiHochaum ; a series of four-line stanzas on some of the 
principal histories of the Old and New Testament. 

5. Two books against Symmachus, the distinguished prefect of 
the city, and the apologist to Valentinian, Theodosius, and 
Arcadius for Pagan rites. 

These poems will always be read as curious relics of that primi- 
tive age ; but to that we must confine our praise. Par different is 
the case with the two lyrical works of Prudentius, the Cathemerinon 
and the Peristephanon. 

The Cathemerinon — or, as we might now call it, the Christian His lyric 
day — contains the following hymns : — 1. At Cockcrow (100 lines) ; poems - 
2/Por the Morning (112); 3. Before Pood (205); 4. After Pood 
(102); 5. For the kindling of the Paschal Light (164) ; 6. Before 



224 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



Prudcmius. Sleep (152); 7. For a Fast (220) ; 8. After a Fast (80) ; 9. An 
occasional Hymn (114) ; 10. At Funerals (172); 11. Christmas 
Day (116); 12. The Epiphany (208). It is manifest that all of 
these were far too long to be employed in ecclesiastical services ; 
but portions of, and more especially centos from, them have been 
and still are employed by the Western Church almost daily. That 
at a Funeral is the noblest of all. We will give some extracts from 
it, and attempt a translation, in the metre of the original, but 
unshackled by rhyme. The poet thus begins : — 



Deus, ignee fons animarum, 
Duo qui socians elementa 
Vivum simul et moribundum 
Hominem, Pater, eftigiasti : 

Tua sunt, tua, Rector, utraque : 
Tibi copula jungitur horum : 
Tibi, dum vegetata cohserent, 
Et spiritus et caro servit. 

Rescissa sed ista seorsum 
Solvunt bominem perimuntque 
Humus excipit arida corpus, 
Animse rapit aura liquorem. 



God, fiery fountain of spirits, 
Who, elements twofold combining, 
Both living each mortal createdst, 
And tending towards dissolution : 

They are Thine, both the one and the other: 
Their conjuncture is Thine, while united : 
And Thee, while they dwell in coherence, 
They serve, both the soul and the body. 



For these, when divided in sunder, 
Dissolve and dismember the mortal 
And earth giveth rest to the body, 
And ether receivetli the spirit. 



Hence Prudentius takes occasion to dwell on the different existences 
hereafter allotted to different lives here ; and then, in a noble strain 
of faith, proceeds : — 



Venient cito saecula, quum jam 
Socius calor ossa reviset : 
Animataque sanguine vivo 
Habitacula pristina gestet. 



The ages are hastening onward, 
When the frame vital heat shall revisit, 
And, animate then and for ever, 
Shall assume its first loved habitation. 



Hinc maxima cura sepulchris 
Expenditur : hinc resolutos 
Honor ultimus excipit artus, 
Et funeris ambitus ornat. 



Hence tombs have their holy attendance : 
Hence the forms that have seen dissolution 
Receive the last honours of nature, 
And are decked with the pomp of the burial. 



Quidnam sibi saxa cavata 
Quid pulchra volunt monumenta, 
Nisi quod res creditur illis 
Non mortua, sed data somno ? 



For what mean the tombs that we quarry, 
What the art that our monuments boast in, 
But that this, which we trust to their keeping, 
Is not dead, but reposing in slumber ? 



The poet then dwells on the Christian charity displayed in attendance 
on funerals, as an act of faith and of hope : 



Mors ipsa beatior inde est, 
Quod per cruciamina leti 
Via panditur ardua justis, 
Et ad astra doloribus itur. 



Very Death thence becometh more blessed, 
Because by the sharpness of dying 
The bright path is oped for the righteous, 
And we go to the stars by endurance. 



Jam nulla deinde senectus 
Frontis decus invida carpet : 
Macies neque sicca lacertos 
Succo tenuabit adeso. 



PRUDENTIUS. 225 

Thenceforward old age in its envy Prudentius. 

Shall gather youth's loveliness never : 
Thenceforward no sickness nor anguish 
Shall rifle its bloom and its vigour. 



Hence comfort is addressed 
with these noble stanzas : 

Jam msesta quiesce, querela : 
Lacrymas suspendite, matres ! 
Nullus sua pignora plangat : 
Mors hsec reparatio vitse est. 

Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum, 
Gremioque hunc concipe molli : 
Hominis tibi membra sequestro, 
Generosa et fragmina credo : 

Tu depositum tege corpus : 
Non immemor ille requiret 
Sua munera Factor et Auctor, 
Propriique eenigoaata vultus. 

Sed dum resolubile corpus 
Revocas, Deus, atque reformas, 
Quanam region e jubebis 
Animam requiescere puram ? 

Gremio senis abdita sancti 
Recubabit, ut est Eleazar : 
Quern floribus undique septum 
Dives procul aspicit ardens. 

Sequimur tua dicta, Redemptor, 
Quibus, atra e morte triumphans, 
Tua per vestigia mandas 
Socium crucis ire latronem. 

Patet ecce fidelibus ampli 
Via lucida jam Paradisi, 
Licet et nemus illud adire, 
Homini quod adeuoerat anguis. 

Illic, precor, optime Ductor, 
Famulam tibi praecipe mentem 
Genitali in sede sacrari, 
Quam liquerat exul, et errans. 

Nos tecta fovebimus ossa 
Violis, et fronde frequenti : 
Titulumque, et frigida saxa 
Liquido spargemus odore. 



to the mourners ; and the poem ends 



Each sorrowful mourner, be silent ! 
Fond mothers, give over your weeping ! 
None grieve for those pledges as perished : 
This dying is life's reparation. 

Now take him, O Earth, to thy keeping : 
And give him soft rest in thy bosom : 
I lend thee the frame of a Christian : 
I entrust thee the generous fragments. 

Thou holily guard the deposit : 
He will well, He will surely require it, 
Who, forming it, made its creation 
The type of His image and likeness. 

But until the resolvable body 
Thou recallest, O God, and re-formest, 
What regions, unknown to the mortal, 
Dost Thou will the pure soul to inhabit ? 

It shall rest upon Abraham's bosom, 
As the spirit of blest Eleazar, 
Whom, afar in that Paradise, Dives 
Beholds from the flames of his torments. 

We follow thy saying, Redeemer, 
Whereby, as on death thou wast trampling, 
The thief Thy companion Thou wiliest 
To tread in thy footsteps and triumph. 

To the faithful the bright way is open 
Henceforward, to Paradise leading, 
And to that blessed grove we have access 
Whereof man was bereaved by the serpent. 

Thou Leader and Guide of Thy people, 
Give command that the soul of thy servant 
May have holy repose in the country 
Whence exile and erring he wandered. 

We will honour the place of his resting 
With violets and garlands of flowers, 
And will sprinkle inscription and marble 
With odours of costliest fragrance. 



Prudentius never attained this grandeur on any other occasion. 
But the hymns for the Epiphany, for the Cockcrowing, the Occa- 
[r. l.] q 



226 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



rrudentius. sional Hymn, and that Before Sleep, approach nearest to it, 
will quote the conclusion of the latter : 

Servant of God, remember 
The Font of thy Salvation 
Its precious dew shed o'er thee, 
And thine was Confirmation. 



We 



Cultor Dei, memento 
Te Fontis, et lavacri 
Rorem subisse sanctum : 
Te Chrismate innovatum. 



Fac, quum, vocante somno, 
Castum petis cubile, 
Frontem locumque cordis 
Crucis figura siguet. 

Procul, O procul, vagantum 
Portenta somniorum : 
Procul esto pervicaci 
Praestigiator astu. 

O tortuose serpens, 
Qui mille per maeandros 
Fraudesque flexuosas 
Agitas quieta corda : 

Discede ; Christus hie est : 
Hie Christus est : liquesce : 
Signum quod ipse nosti 
Damnat tuam catervam. 

Corpus licet fatiscens 
Jaceat recline paulum, 
Christum tamen sub ipso 
Meditabimuv sopore. 



Take heed when, slumber calling, 
To thy chaste couch thou goest, 
That on thy heart and forehead 
The Cross's sign thou knowest. 

Hence, O far hence, ye portents 
And dreams of nightly terror : 
Hence, O far hence, deceivers 
Beguiling into error. 

And thou, O guileful serpent, 
Through many a crafty doubling 
Who creepest on to tempt us, 
The faithful spirit troubling ; 

Depart : here Christ is present : 
Here Christ is present : vanish : 
The sign thyself confessest 
Thy ghostly legions banish ! 

And though the weary body 
Awhile in sleep reclineth, 
Round Christ, in very slumber, 
Its meditation twineth. 



The Peristephano7i, i. e., hymns concerning the Crowns of the 
Martyrs, is far more valuable as a work of Christian archaeology 
than as poetry. There are fourteen : — SS. Hemeterius and Cheli- 
donius, containing 100 lines ; S. Laurence (584) ; S. Eulalia (215) ; 
the xviij. Martyrs of Saragossa (200); S. Vincent (576); 
SS. Eructuosus and his companions (162); S. Quirinus (90); for 
a Baptistery (18); S. Cassian (106); S. Eomanus (1140); 
S. Hippolytus (246); SS. Peter and Paul (66) ; S. Cyprian (106) ; 
S. Agnes (133). 

In many of these, it cannot be denied, the poet is insufferably 
tedious, and creeps along in his narration ; in several places he 
exhibits the grossest bad taste — as where he puts into the mouth of 
S. Laurence, just before his condemnation, an harangue of 
120 lines, on the analogy between bodily and spiritual diseases. 
But here and there, like a glimpse of light amidst smoke, we catch 
the true poet. Scarcely any of these hymns has afforded a cento 
for the services of the Latin Church. The two finest are that on the 
Martyrs of Saragossa, and that on S. Eulalia. The opening of the 
former is truly sublime. After referring to the eighteen saints who 
had fallen in that city for the name of Chuist, the poet proceeds : 



PEUDENTIUS. 



227 



Plena magnorum domus Angelorum 
Non timet mundi fragilis ruinam, 
Tot sinu gestaas simul offerenda 
Munera Christo, 



Prudentius. 



Quum Deus dextram quatiens coruscam 
Nube subnixus veniet rubente, 
Gentibus justam positurus aequo 

Pondere libram : 

Orbe de magno caput excitata 
Obviam Christo properanter ibit 
Civitas quseque, pretiosa portans 
Dona canistris. 



Wherefore this dwelling, full of mighty angels, 
Fears not the wide world's universal ruin, 
Bearing the pledges that it then may offer 
At the Tribunal : 

Thus, when the Judge shall shake His flaming Right Hand, 
As in the storm-cloud and the fire He cometh, 
Nations and kindreds, in exactest justice, 

Dooming to judgment ; 

Then shall each city, from earth's furthest borders, 
Hasten to meet Him, bearing her oblation ; 
Offering a casket of the precious relics 

Left by her martyrs. 



The following imitation may convey some idea of the conclusion of 
j the hymn on S. Eulalia : l 

The pile was quenched : the limbs, so late 
The sport of cruelty and hate, 

In painless quiet lay : 
A sound of triumph filled the sky, 
As to the holy place on high 

She bent her happy way. 
It was the time when cold winds blow, 

And surly winter reigns : 
He covered with a shroud of snow 

The Virgin's blest remains. 
What are the rites that man can try 

To prove the Martyr dear, 
To this, when He who rules the sky 
Commands the elements on high 

To grace their holy bier 
Who, ere they laid the body by, 

Were His confessors here ? 
Go ! pluck the violet's flower to-day ! 



1 This translation 
Masters. 1846. 



which is rather free, is from " Annals of Virgin Saints." 



Q2 



Prudentius. 



228 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

The golden crocus bring; 
Our winter lacks not such array : 
And frost and snow have sped away 

Before the buds of spring. 
Maidens and youths, their foliage twine, 
To deck the Victor Maiden's shrine ! 
We in the midst with other flowers 

Will wreathe the Martyr's crown : 
And this dactylic verse of ours 

Shall speak her high renown. 
If its poor buds must soon decay 
The festal wreath may serve to-day ! 
Thus in our annual wont, 'tis just 
To celebrate her sacred dust 
In God's abode, beneath whose Throne 
The Blessed Martyr found her own : 
And she, well pleased by this our rite, 
Shall guard her people day and night ! 

These long quotations are but due to the fame of Prudentius. 
s. Pauiinus. S. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in the beginning of the fifth cen 
tury, the friend of S. Augustine and S. Jerome, and of Ausonius, 
has left a good many poems, of which the most remarkable are those 
on the Festival of S. Felix, his patron, his Epistle to Cythserus, 
and his panegyric on Celsus. The following lines may serve as a 
specimen of his style : 

Nobis ore Dei solator Apostolus adsit ; 

Nos Evangelio Christus amans doccat. 
Nos exempla Patrum, simul et praeconia vatum, 

Nos liber Historian formet Apostolicae. 
In qua corporeum remeare ad sidera Christum 

Cernimus, et gremio nubis in astra vehi, 
Et talem ccelis reducem sperare jubemur 

Ad ccelos qualem vidimus ire Patri. 
Hujus in Adventum modo pendent omnia rerum, 

Omnis in hunc Regem spesque fidesque inhiat. 
Jamque propinquantem supremo tempore finem 

Immutanda novis sascula parturiunt. 

A certain feeble elegance characterises all the poems of S. Pauli 
nus. Scarcely any of them have ever been used by the Church. 
seduiius. Caius Sedulius, by birth a Scot, flourished about a.d. 430 ; 

He travelled through France and Italy, and appears to have settled 
in Achaia, where, according to a general belief, he died a bishop. 1 

The works of Sedulius consist of the Carmen Paschale, in five 
books ; an Elegy ; and a Hymn. The first book of the Carmen 
Paschale, after a glance at the History of the Old Testament, con 
trasts Paganism with Christianity. The remaining four are taken 
up, like the work of Juvencus, with a Harmony of Our Lord's 

1 Nicol. Atitonius, Biblioth. Vet. Hispan., 3, 5, 115, however, stoutly denied 

this. 



SEDULIUS. 229 

Life and Death. But Seduiius, unlike his predecessor in the same Seduiius. 
task, was a true poet. Let the following passages serve as proofs. 
In the invocation, by which he addresses himself to his task : l 

Interea, dum rite viam sermone levamus, 

Spesque fidesque meum comitantur in ardua gressum, 

Blandius ad summam tandem pervenimus arcem. 

En signo sacrata Cruris vexilla coruscant : 

En regis pia castra micant, tuba clamat herilis : 

Militibus sua porta patet : qui militat, intrat : 

Janua vos eterna vocat, quae janua Christus. 

Aurea perpetuae capietis praemia vitas 

Anna, quibus Domini tota virtute geruntur, 

Et fixum est in fronte decus. — Decus armaque porto : 

Militiaeque tuae, bone Rex, pars ultima resto. 

Hie proprias sedes, hujus mihi maenibus urbis 

Exiguam concede domum ; tuus incola Sanctis 

Ut merear habitare locis, alboque beati 

Ordinis extremus conscribi in secula civis. 

Grandia posco quidem ; sed tu dare grandia nosti, 

Quern magis offendit, quisquis sperando tepescit. 

■If 

^w Meantime, while with discourse we charm the way, 

And faith and hope accompany, we reacli 
The highest citadel, and find our goal. 
Lo ! where it glows, the Banner of the Cross ! 
Lo ! where it beams, the royal camp ! The trump 
Proclaims our Lord : each soldier knows his gate : 
Enter, ye warriors ! The eternal door 
Invites you forward : and that door is Christ. 
There shall ye all, who fight the godlike fight, 
Whose foreheads wear the godlike sign, receive 
The golden guerdon of perpetual life. 
That sign, those arms I carry : Thine, O King, 
Albeit Thy feeblest soldier, Thine I stand. 
Give me a dwelling place, a little home 
Among Thy chosen mansions ; give me there 
To merit entrance in Thy holy place, 
And midst its citizens inscribe my name. 
Great things are they I ask : Thou giv'st great things, 
And more he angers Thee, who trifles craves. 

In the Life of Our Lord, Seduiius is not a mere chronicler of 
facts in verse. He intersperses his own reflections, draws his own 
conclusions, and frequently gives a mystical explanation of the his- 
toric details to which he alludes. The following passage on the 
Nativity seems extremely worthy of quotation (lib. ii. 49) : 



Quis fuit ille rubor, Mariae cum Christus ab alvo 
Processit splendore novo ? — Velut ipse decoro 
Sponsus ovaus thalamo, forma speciosus auicena 
Prae natis hominum, cujus radiante figura 



Lib. i. 334. 



230 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

Sedulius. Blandior in labiis diffusa est gratia pulchris. 

O facilis foetus ! Ne nos servile teneret 
Peccato dominante jugum servilia summus 
Membra tulit Dominus ; primique ab origine roundi 
Omnia qui propriis vestit nascentia donis, 
Obsitus exiguis habuit velamina pannis ; 
Quemque procellosi non mobilis unda profundi, 
Terrarum non omne solum, spatiosaque lati 
Non capit aula poli, puerili in corpore plenus 
Mansit, et angusto Deus in praesepe quievit. 

Iii narration, too, Sedulius far outstrips his competitor. We 
give the parallel passages at the commencement of the Temptation : 

JlJVENCUS. 

Horrendi interea sceleris versutia tentans, 
Si te pro certo genuit Deus omnibus, inquit, 
His poteris saxis forti sermone jubere 
TJsum triticei formamque capessere panis. 
Christus ad haec fatur : Nil me jam talia terrent : 
Nam memini scriptum, quoniam non sola tenebit 
Vitam credentis facilis substantia panis, 
Sed sermone Dei complet pia pectora virtus. 

Sedulius. 

Insidiis tentator adit, doctusque per artem 
Fallaces offerre dapes, Si Filius, inquit, 
Cerneris esse Dei, die, ut lapis iste repente 
In panis vertatur opem. Miracula tanquam 
Hcec eadem non semper agat, qui saxea terras 
Viscera frugiferis animans foecundat aristis 
Et panem de caute creat. Hac ergo repulsus 
Voce prius, hominem non solo vivere pane 
Sed cuncto sermone Dei. .... 



The lines of Juvencus read like the imposed task of a schoolboy : 
those of Sedulius like the composition of a poet and a divine. 

The Elegy contains nothing remarkable. It is an example of the 
frigid conceit called Epanalepsis, by which the beginning of the first 
and the end of the second line are always identical : thus — 

Primus ad ima ruit magna de luce superbus : 
Sic homo, cum tumuit, primus ad ima ruit. 

The hymn, A Soils ortus cardine, is ABCDarian — that is, the verses 
commence with the successive letters of the alphabet. Portions of 
it have always been in use in the Western Church. We give the 
first part. The version is partly from that published in the "Hymnal" 
of the Ecclesiological Society, partly from the " Sarum Hours " of 
Mr. Chambers : — 



DKACONTTTJS. 



31 



A solis ortus cardine, 
Ad usque terrae limitera, 
Christum canamus Principem, 
Ortum Maria Virgine. 



From lands that see the sun arise 
To earth's remotest boundaries, 
The Virgin-born to day we sing, 
The Son of Mary, Christ the King. 



Sedulius. 



Beatus Auctor seculi 
Servile corpus induit ; 
Ut carne camera liberans 
Ne perderet quos condidit. 



Blest Author of this earthly frame, 
To take a servant's form He came ; 
That, liberating flesh by flesh, 
Those He had made might live afresh. 



Castae parentis viscera 
Ccelestis intrat gratia; 
Venter puellae bajulat 
Secreta quae non noverat. 



In that chaste parent's holy womb 
Celestial grace finds ready home : 
Now teems that maiden's bosom mild 
By earthly contact undefiled. 



Domus pudici pectoris 
Templum repente fit Dei ; 
Intacta nesciens virum 
Virgo creavit Filium. 



The mansion of the modest breast 
Becomes a shrine where God shall rest 
Inviolate, by man unknown, 
She by a word conceived the Sox. 



Enixa est puerpera, 
Quern Gabriel praedixerat : 
Quern matris alvo gestiens 
Clausus Joannes senserat. 



That Son, that Royal Son she bore, 
Whom Gabriel's voice had told afore 
Whom, in his mother yet concealed, 
The Infant Baptist had revealed. 



Faeno jacere pertulit, 
Praesepe non abhorruit, 
Parvoque lacte pastus est, 
Per quern nee alls esurit. 



The cradle and the straw He bore, 
The manger did He not abhor, 
A little milk His infant fare 
Who feedeth ev'n each fowl of air. 



Gaudet chorus ccelestium, 
Et Angeli canunt Deo, 
Palamque fit pastoribus 
Pastor, Creator omnium. 



The heavenly chorus filled the sky, 
The angels sang to God on high : 
What time to shepherds, watching lone, 
They made Creation's Shepherd known. 



Dracontitjs. All that can certainlybe said of this writer is, that he Drasontius. 
was a Spaniard ; — that he nourished in the fifth century ; — that he 
offended Guntharius, King of the Yandals, and was thrown into 
prison by him ; — and that there he wrote his heroic poem Be Beo, 
in three books, and his elegy entitled Satisfactio. 

The poem Be Beo is not without its beauty, though it cannot be 
classed with that of Sedulius. There is a much greater laxity of 
metre, and (what is not so excusable) a considerable neglect of 
csesura, which makes whole paragraphs run on very heavily. The 
first book describes the creation of the world and the fall of man, 
and concludes, after the sentence of death pronounced on our first 
parents, with the symbols of the Kesurrection. The various opera- 
tions of creation are rather graphically touched ; but the poet never 
knows when to have done with a subject. Take, for example, the 
creation of the birds : — 



232 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

Turn varias fundunt voces modulamine blando, 
Et, puto, collaudant Dominum meruisse creari. 
Hae niveo oandore nitent, has purpura vestit, 
His croceus plumse color est, has aureus ornat, 
Albentes aliis pennae solidantur ocellis 
Atque hyacinthus adest per colla, et pectora fulgens. 
Eminet his cristatus apex, has lingua decorat, &c. 

It would be curious to discover whether Milton had read the 
account, not ill told, of the first meeting of Adam and Eve. There 
is not a trace of resemblance, unless the line — 

Nescia mens illis, fieri quae causa fuisset, 

may be supposed to have suggested — 

But who I was, or where, or for what cause, 
Knew not. 

The second book contains little more than general reflections on 
God's omnipotence and justice ; and introduces, in no very logical 
sequence, our Lord's Miracles, the Deluge, and the final Judgment. 
The third, after treating on God's providence, contrasts heathenism 
with Christianity, and dilates on the spread and apostolic preachers 
of the Gospel. Neither of these, however, equals the first book. 

Arator, originally in an honourable situation in Justinian's 
household, afterwards a sub-deacon of the Eoman Church, has left 
a paraphrase, in heroic verse, of the Acts of the Apostles. It is in 
two books, and comprises about 1800 lines. It was originally pre- 
sented to Pope Yigilius, April 6, 544, and publicly recited by the 
poet, in the Church of S. Peter ad Yincula, where it was received 
Avith the greatest applause. 

We cannot give much praise to this author, except that his 
Latinity is suprisingly classical for the age. He is superior to 
Juvencus, but must be characterised in nearly the same terms. 
The following lines, from S. Paul's speech to the elders of Ephesus, 
may serve as a favourable specimen : — 

Ne cedite duris. 
Virtuti damnosa quies, nullumque coronat 
In stadio securus honor ; sua gloria forti 
Causa laboris erit : rarusque ad prsemia miles 
Cui pax sola fuit : Victoria semen ab hoste 
Accipit, huic virtus. Dominus plantaria vestra 
Fcecundare valet : qui per sua dona venire 
Ad sua dona facit ; quodque adjuvat ipse ministrat. 



The last writer in this stage of Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry 
s. Gregory wnom we saa ^ mention, is S. Gregory the Great, Bishop of 
the Great. Borne, from 591 to 604. Many hymns have been attributed to 



S. GREGORY THE GREAT. 



233 



him, as to S. Hilary and S. Ambrose, with which he clearly had s. Gregory 



nothing to do. 



The following is undoubtedly his 



the Great. 



Prirno dierum omnium 
Quo muudus extat conditus 
Vel quo resurgens Conditor 
Nos, morte victa, liberat : 



On this the day that saw the earth, 
From utter darkness first have birth : 
The day its Maker rose again, 
And vanquished Death, and burst our chain, 



Pulsis procul torporibus 
Surgamus onines ocyus : 
Et nocte quaeraruus Deuni, 
Sicut prophetam novimus, 

Nostras preces ut audiat, 
Suamque dextram porrigat, 
Et expiatos sordibus 
Reddat polorum sedibus. 

Ut quique sacratissimo 
Hujus diei tempore 
Horis quietis psallimus 
Donis beatis muneret. 



Away with sleep and slothful ease ! 
We raise our hands and bend our knees, 
And early seek the God of all, 
According to the Prophet's call, 

That He may grant us that we crave, 
May stretch His strong right aim to save, 
And, purging out each sinful stain, 
Restore us to our home again. 

We rise before the holy light, 
In these calm hours of holiest night : 
And oh, that He to whom we sing 
Would now reward our offering ! 



Jam nunc, paterna claritas, 
Te postulamus affatim : 
Absit libido sordidans, 
Omnisque actus noxius : 



Father of life and light ! give heed ! 
Suppliants we here before Thee plead 
O cleanse from sordid lust the heart ; 
May every evil act depart : 



Ne fceda sit vel lubrica 
Compago nostri corporis : 
Per quod Averni ignibus 
Ipsi crememur acrius. 



That this our body's mortal frame 
May know no sin and fear no shame. 
Whereby the fires of Hell might rise 
To torture us in fiercer wise. 



Ob hoc, Redemptor, qusesumus, 
Ut pr ora nostra diluas, 
Yitae perennis commoda 
Nobis benkne conferas. 



We, therefore, Saviour, cry to Thee 
To wash out our iniquity, 
And give us, of Thine endless grace, 
The blessings of Thy heavenly place. 



Quo carnis actu exsules, 
Effecti ipsi ccelibes, 1 
Ut prsestolamur cernui 
Melos canamus gloriae. 



That we, thence exiled by our sin, 
Hereafter may be welcomed in : 
That happy time awaiting, now 
With hymns of glory here we bow.* 2 



1 This use of the word ccelibes, which might easily be thought a mistake for 
ccelites, is not uncommon in mediaeval hymnology. So an Ambrosian hymn : 

Sed cum Beatis compotes 
Simus perennes ccelibes. 

It is doubtless derived from that text, " They neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the Angels of God." (S. Matth. xxii., 30.) 

2 The translation is from the "Hymnal " of the Ecclesiological Society, but partly 
also from Mr. Chambers'3 " Sarum Hours." 



S. Gregory 
the Great. 



234 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



The far greater preponderance of rhymes than in the hymns of 
S. Ambrose is here very observable ; the second and third verses 
rhyme perfectly, and of the twelve other couplets four rhyme. We 
may quote the following short hymn of the same author : 



Ecce jam noctis tenuatur umbra, 
Lux et aurora rutilans coruscat : 
Viiibus totis rogitemus omnes 

Cunctipotentem, 

Ut Deus nostri miseratus omnem 
Pellat languorem, tribuat salutem, 
Donet et nobis pietate Patris 

Regna polorum. 

Praestet hoc nobis Deitas Beata 
Patris et Nati pariterque Sancti 
Spiritus, cujus reboat per omnem 

Gloria mundum. 

Darkness is thinning : shadows are retreating : 
Morning and light are coming in their beauty : 
Suppliant seek we, with an earnest outcry, 

God the Almighty, 

So that our Master, having mercy on us, 
May repel languor, may bestow salvation, 
Granting us, Father, of thy loving kindness, 
Glory hereafter. 

This of His mercy, ever Blessed Godhead, 
Father and Son, and Holy Spirit give us : 
Whom through the wide world celebrate for ever 
Blessing and glory. 



Other 
writers. 



We might easily have named several other writers of Ecclesiastical 
verse in this, its first, period ; but their merit is not such as, in so 
brief a sketch, to merit particular notice. Tertullian, Cyprian, 
Lactantius and Sidonius Apollinaris have been mentioned in the 
post-Augustan period. To these we now add : — Claudius 
Marius Yictor, a professor of rhetoric at Marseilles, who 
flourished about 460, and wrote a paraphrase in three (or, accord- 
ing to other MSS., four) books, on the first nineteen chapters of 
Genesis. S. Alcimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, wrote an 
heroic poem in five books — the first treating of the Creation of 
the World ; the second, of original sin ; the third, of the Sentence 
pronounced after the Fall ; the fourth, of the Deluge ; the fifth, 



S. GREGORY THE GREAT. 



235 



of the Ked Sea. Proba Falconia (best edition Kroomayer, s. Gregory 
Halle, 1719) published some Yirgilian centos on the History of the Great - 
the Old and New Testament. All these writers (except the last) 
may be found in the Poetce Christiani of Fabricius, to which we 
have before referred. 




Gregory the Great. 







The Venerable Bede. 

SECOND PEKIOD.— THE KESTOBATIOJN". 

FROM VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS TO THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICALISM. 



While the Latin as a spoken language was coming to an end, 
a writer arose who may truly be called the earliest in the mediaeval 
school, Yenantius Fortunatus, the fashionable poet of the South 
of France, and who died Bishop of Poictiers, in 609. A contemporary 
of S. Gregory though he were, the wild freshness and life of the 
nation in which he wrote burst the trammels of classicalism for 
ever. Hitherto we have seen it (to use Mr. Trench's words) in its 
weak and indistinct beginnings ; not yet knowing itself or its own 
importance ; we mark its irregular application at first — the want of 
skill in its use — the only gradual discovery of its fullest capabilities. 
The first rhyming hymn in the Latin language is due to Fortunatus ; 
and its grandeur has seldom been surpassed by any of his successors. 
It is the world-famous Vexilla Regis prodeunt, of which we quote 
the translation published in the " Hymnal " of the Ecclesiological 
Society : — 

The Royal Banners forward go : 
The Cross shines forth with mystic glow : 
Where He in flesh, our flesh Who made, 
Our sentence hore, our ransom paid. 

Where deep for us the spear was dyed, 
Life's torrent rushing from His side : 
To wash us in the precious flood, 
Where mingled water flowed, and blood. 



FORTUNATUS. 237 

Fulfilled is all that David told Fortunatu?. 

In true prophetic song of old : 

Amidst the nations God, saith he, 

Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree. 

O Tree of Beauty ! Tree of Light ! 
O Tree with royal purple dight ! 
Elect upon whose faithful breast 
Those holy limbs should find their rest ! 

On whose dear arms, so widely flung, 
The weight of this world's ransom hung, 
The price of humankind to pay, 
And spoil the spoiler of his prey ! 

The greater part of the rhymes here — as, for example, the two 
first, " Vexilla Regis prodewnt, Eulget Crucis Mysteriwm," — are only 
assonant, but the principle was established. 

But a still greater step was made by the mastery which "Fortu- 
natus showed over the Trochaic Tetrameter, — a measure which, with 
various modifications, was to become the glory of mediaeval poetry. 
It is true that Prudentius had once or twice used it, but Fortunatus 
was the first to group it into stanzas. Now, the real telling rhyme 
of mediaeval poetry is that which is double Trochaic. The 
employment of this was of a still later date ; and we can hardly 
believe but that Fortunatus purposely avoided it. However that 
may be, a stanza like this involved the certain discovery of such 
rhyme in the course of time, and the plastic mind of Church writers 
would be sure to give it shape. 

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis ! 
Nulla talem sylva profert flore, fronde, germine ; 
Dulce lignum dulci clavo dulce pondus sustinens. 

The hymn is amply worth translation : 

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle, with completed victory rife, 
And above the Cross's trophy, tell the triumph of the strife ; 
How the world's Redeemer conquer'd, by surrendering of his life. 

God, his Maker, sorely grieving that the first-born Adam fell, 
When he ate the noxious apple, whose reward was death and hell, 
Noted then this wood, the ruin of the ancient wood to quell. 

For the work of our Salvation needs would have his order so, 

And the multiform deceiver's art by art would overthrow ; 

And from thence would bring the medicine whence the venom of the foe. 

Wherefore, when the sacred fulness of the appointed time was come, 
This world's Maker left His Father, left His bright and heavenly home, 
And proceeded, God Incarnate, of the Virgin's holy womb. 



I 



238 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

"Weeps the Infant in the manger that in Bethlehem's stable stands ; 
And His limbs the Virgin Mother doth compose in swaddling bands, 
Meetly thus in linen folding of her God the feet and hands. 

Thirty years among us dwelling, His appointed time fulfilled, 
Born for this, He meets His Passion, for that this He freely willed : 
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted, where His life-blood shall be spilled. 

He endured the shame and spitting, vinegar, and nails, and reed ; 
As His blessed side is opened, water thence and blood proceed : 
Earth, and sky, and stars, and ocean, by that flood are cleansed indeed. 

Faithful Cross ! above all other, one and only noble Tree ! 

None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be ; 

Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee ! 

Bend thy boughs, Tree of Glory ! thy relaxing sinews bend ; 
For awhile the ancient rigour, that thy birth bestowed, suspend ; 
And the King of heavenly beauty on thy bosom gently tend. 

Thou alone wast counted worthy this world's ransom to uphold ; 
For a shipwreck'd race preparing harbour, like the Ark of old : 
With the sacred blood anointed from the wounded Lamb that roll'd. 

Laud and honour to the Father, laud and honour to the Son, 
Laud and honour to the Spirit, ever Three and ever One : 
Consubstantial, coeternal, while unending ages run. 

We add one more, in the metre of the original ; that commencing 
Crux benedicta nitet — 

That blest Cross is displayed, where the Lord in the flesh was suspended, 
And, by His blood, from their wounds cleansed and redeemed His elect : 

Where for us men, through His love, become the victim of mercy, 
He, the Blest Lamb, His sheep saved from the fangs of the wolf: 

Where by His palms transpierced He redeemed the world from its ruin, 
And by His own dear Death closed up the path of the grave. 

This was the band that, transfixed by the nails, and bleeding, of old time 
Paul from the depth of his crime ransomed, and Peter from death. 




Strong in thy fertile array, O Tree of sweetness and glory, 

Bearing such new-found fruit midst the green wreaths of thy boughs 

Thou by thy savour of life the dead from their slumbers restorest, 
Rendering sight to the eyes that have been closed to the day. 

Heat is there none that can burn beneath thy shadowy covert : 
Nor can the sun in the noon strike, nor the moon in the night. 

Planted art thou beside the streams of the rivers of waters : 
Foliage and loveliest flowers scattering widely abroad. 

Fast in thy arms is enfolded the Vine ; from whom in its fulness, 
Floweth the blood-red juice, wine that gives life to the soul. 






NEO-LATIN POETRY FORMED. 239 

These hymns are infinitely superior to anything else that Fortu- 
natus wrote, and they have consigned him to immortality. 

It is a work of intense difficulty to determine when double rhyme 
was introduced into Christian Hymnology. We have a proof that, as 
late as 535, it was not felt in Italy. The following is an inscription 
of that date on a church built by Belisarius at Eavenna : 

Hanc vir patricius, Velisarius, urbis amicus, 

Ob culpse veniam condidit Ecclesiam : 
Hanc idcirco pedem, qui sacram ponis in aedem, 

Ut miseretur eum, saepe precare Deum. 

All these verses, it is true, are cristati ; but the indifferent use of 
male and female rhymes shows that they were rather addressed to 
the eye than the ear. Nor are we aware that an earlier example of 
consistent and intended double rhymes can be traced in hexameters 
than in the poem of Mutius of Bergamo, de rebus Bergamensibus t 
which bears date 707 : and V. Bede seems to be the first author 
who used consistent double rhymes in Trochaics. 

In the meantime, the neo-Latin poetry was rapidly forming. 
Between the time of S. Gregory and that of Y. Bede, many glorious 
hymns were composed. Of these we may mention, the Ad Ccenam 
Agni providi, the Deus tuorum militum, the Hymnus dicat turba 
fratrum, and the Apparebit repentina. The first of these opens as 
follows : — 

Ad ccenam Agni providi The Lamb's high banquet we await 

Et stolis albis candidi, In snow-white robes of festal state : 

Post transitum maris rubri And now, the Red Sea's channel past, 

Christo canamus principi. To Christ our Prince we sing at last. 

Cujus corpus sanctissimum, Upon the altar of the Cross 

In ar& Crucis torridum : His Body hath redeemed our loss : 

Cruore ejus roseo And tasting there his roseate blood, 

Gustando vivimus Deo. Our life is hid with Him in God. 

Protecti Paschae vespere That Paschal eve God's arm was bared; 

A devastante Angelo, The devastating Angel spared : 

Erepti de durissimo By strength of hand our hosts went free 

Pharaonis imperio. From Pharaoh's ruthless tyranny. 

Jam Pascha nostrum Christus est, Now Christ, our Paschal Lamb, is slain, 

Qui immolatus Agnus est, The Lamb of God that knows no stain : 

Sinceritatis azyma The true oblation offered here, 

Caro ejus oblata est. Our own unleavened bread sincere. 

The conclusion of the Apparebit repentina is this : 

But the righteous, upward soaring, 
To the heavenly land shall go, 
Midst the cohorts of the angels, 
Where is joy for evermo ; 



240 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



To Jerusalem exulting 
They with shouts shall enter in. 
That true " sight of peace " and glory 
That sets free from grief and sin ; 

Christ shall they behold for ever, 
Seated at the Father's hand ; 
As in beatific vision 
His elect before Him stand. 

Wherefore, man, while yet thou mayest, 
From the dragon's malice fly; 
Give thy bread to feed the hungry, 
If thou seek'st to win the sky ; 

Let thy loins be straightly girded, 
Life be pure, and heart be right, 
At the coming of tbe Bridegroom 
That thy lamp may glitter bright. 



Venerable 
Bede. 



V. Bede himself was the author of several hymns, too long indeed, 
but not without merit. 

The following, for the Ascension, is one of the best : the transla- 
tion is Mr. Chambers's. It is a cento used by the Anglo-Saxon 
church, from a much longer hymn : — 



Hymnum canamus gloriae, 
Hymni novi nunc personent; 
Christus novo cum tramite 
Ad Patris ascendit Thronum. 



Sing we triumphant hymns of praise ; 
New hymns to Heaven exulting raise : 
Christ, by a new and wond'rous road, 
Ascends unto the Throne of God. 



Transit triumpho nobili 
Poli potenter culmina: 
Qui morte mortem absumpserat, 
Derisus a mortalibus. 



In kingly pomp he sweepeth by 

The lofty zenith of the sky, 

Who late, death's death, for mortals died, 

Bv mortals scorned and crucified. 



Apostoli tunc mystico 
In monte stantes chrismatis, 
Cum Matre clara Virgine 
Jesu videbant gloriam. 

Quos alloquentes angeli, — 
" Quid astra stantes cernitis ? 
Salvator hie est," inquiunt, 
" Jesus, triumpho nobili. 

A vobis ad ccelestia 

Qui regna nunc assumptus est, 

Venturus inde saeculi 

In fine, Judex omnium." 

Quo nos precamur tempore 
Jesu, Redemptor unice, 
Inter tuos in aethera 
Servos benignus aggrega. 



Behold the apostolic band 
Upon the Mount of Unction stand : 
With the blest Virgin Mother see 
Their Jesu's glorious majesty. 

Whom thus the shining Angels greet: — 
" Why look ye to yon starry height? 
'Tis He, the Saviour ever blest, 
Jesus, with lordly triumph graced. 

He who from bence to Heaven hath gone, 
The kingdom taken for His own, 
In time's last close again shall come 
To all men righteous judge of doom." 

Oh, in that hour of dread, we pray, 
Jesu, Redeemer, be our stay : 
With thine, who meet Thee in the air, 
Unite us by Thy kindly care. 



S. THEODULPH. 



241 



Nostris ibi tunc cordibus 
Tuo repletis Spiritu 
Ostende Patrem et sufficit 
Haec una nobis visio. 

Amen. 



There to our hearts, in Heaven's blest gate, 
With Thy sweet Spirit satiate, 
Make known the Father, and our eyes 
That only vision shall suffice. 

Amen. 



Veiu rable 
Bede. 



Paulus Diaconus has left one hymn which is curious as having Paul 



given rise to the sol-fa nomenclature. inaccnus. 

UT quean t laxis REsouare fibris 
MIra gestorum FAmuli tuorum, 
SOLve polluti LAbii reatum 

Sancte Joannes. 

The Emperor Charlemagne is the author of a hymn which Charlemagne. 
hardly yields to any — the world-famous Veni, Creator Spiritus, which 
is too well known for quotation ; and S. Theodtjlph, of Orleans, s. Theo- 
distinguished himself by the glorious poem for Palm Sunday, dulph ' 
Gloria latis et honor tibi sit, Rex Ckriste Redemptor. 




Charlemagne. 

The legend concerning this composition is, that the bishop, being 
in prison on a false accusation at Angers, caused it to be sung by 
choristers, as the Emperor Louis and his court were on their way 
to the Procession of Palms. 

Glory, and honour, and laud be to Thee, King Christ the Redeemer, 
Children before whose steps raised their hosannas of praise. 

Israel's monarch art Thou, and the glorious offspring of David, 
Thou that approachest a King, bless'd in the name of the Lord. 

Glory to Thee in the highest the heavenly armies are singing : 
Glory to Thee on the earth man and creation reply. 

Met Thee with palms in their hands that day the folk of the Hebrews : 
We with our prayers and our hymns now to Thy presence approach. 

They to Thee offered their praise for to herald thy dolorous Passion : 
We to the King on His Throne utter the jubilant hymn. 
[r. l.] r 



S. Theo- 
dulph. 



Robert II. 



Hartman. 



S. Peter 
Damiani. 



242 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

They were then pleasing to Thee — unto Thee our devotion be pleasing, 
Merciful King, kind King, who in all goodness art pleased. 

They in their pride of descent were rightly the children of Hebrews : 
Hebrews are we, whom the Lord's Passover maketh the same. 

Victory won o'er the world be to us for our branches of palm tree, 
That in the conqueror's joy this to Thee still be our song : 

Glory, and honour, and laud be to Thee, King Christ the Redeemer, 
Children before whose steps raised their hosannas of praise. 

Kobert II. of France was the author of the beautiful hymn 
which commences 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, 
Et emitte ccelitus 
Lucis tuae radium. 

Veni, Pater pauperum, 
Veni, Dator munerum, 
Veni, Lumen cordium. 

Consolator optime, 
Dulcis hospes animae, 
Dulce refrigerium. 

The first lyrical application of double rhyme is, we think, due to 
Hartman, the celebrated monk of S. Gall, in the Epiphany Hymn, 
which commences 

Tribus signis Deo dignis 

Dies ista colitur ; 
Tria signa, laude digna, 

Coetus hie persequitur. 

We now approach the period when Latin Hymnology attained its 
full splendour. 

S. Peter Damiani, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, who lived from 
1002 — 1072, left several hymns, two of which are of surpassing 
merit. The first is entitled, On the Glories and Joy of Paradise, 
and has often been attributed to S. Augustine. 

The following are some of the most striking stanzas : we quote 
from Mr. Wackerbarth's admirable translation. 



Winter braming — summer flaming, 
There relax their blustering, 

And sweet roses ever blooming 
Make an everlasting spring, 

Lily blanching, crocus blushing, 
And the balsam perfuming. 

Pasture growing, meadows blowing, 
Honey streams in rivers fair, 

While with aromatic perfume 
Grateful glows the balmy air ; 

Luscious fruits that never wither 
Hang in every thicket there. 



There nor waxing moon, nor waning, 
Sun, nor stars in courses bright ; 

For the Lamb to that glad city 
Shines an everlasting light : 

There the daylight beams for ever, 
All unknown are time and night. 

For the Saints, in beauty beaming, 
Shine in light and glory pure, 

Crowned in triumph's flushing honours, 
Joy in unison secure, 

And in safety tell their battles, 
And their foe's discomfiture. 



S. FULBERTi 



243 



Freed from every stain of evil, 
All their carnal wars are done, 

For the flesh made spiritual, 
And the soul agree in one ; 

Peace unbroken spreads enjoyment 
Sin and scandal are unknown. 

Stript of changefulness, united 
To primaeval being's spring, 

And the present form and essence 
Of the Truth contemplating, 

Lo ! they quaff the vital sweetness 
Of the well of quickening. 



Thence departing, aye in sameness 
They their lofty state engage, 

Beauteous, keen, and gay, and noble, 
Unexposed to chance's rage ; 

Health is theirs untouched by sickness, 
Endless youth unmarr'd by age. 

Here they live in endless being : 
Passingness has passed away : 

Here they bloom, they thrive, they flourish, 
For decay'd is all decay : 

Lasting energy hath swallow' d 

Darkling Death's malignant sway. 



8. Peter 
Damiani. 



The other, which Ave quote at full, is the following 



what terror in thy forethought, 
Ending scene of mortal life ! 

Heart is sicken'd, reins are loosen'd, 
Thrills each nerve, with terror rife, 

When the anxious heart depicteth 
All the anguish of the strife ! 

Who the spectacle can image, — 
How tremendous ! — of that day, 

When, the course of life accomplish'd, 
From the trammels of her clay 

Writhes the soul to be delivered, 
Agonised to pass away ! 

Sense hath perish'd, tongue is rigid, 
Eyes are filming o'er in death, 

Palpitates the breast, and hoarsely 
Gasps the rattling throat for breath : 

Limbs are torpid, lips are pallid, 
Breaking nature quivereth. 

All come round him ! — cogitation, 
Habit, word, and deed are there ! 

All, though much and sore he struggle, 
Hover o'er him in the air : 

Turn he this way, turn he that way, 
On his inmost soul they glare. 



Conscience' self her culprit tortures, 
Gnawing him with pangs unknown : 

For that now amendment's season 
Is for ever past and gone, 

And that late Repentance findeth 
Pardon none for all her moan. 

Fleshly lusts of fancied sweetness 

Are converted into gall, 
When on brief and bitter pleasure 

Everlasting dolours fall : 
Then, what late appeared so mighty, 

Oh ! how infinitely small ! 

Christ, unconquered King of Glory ! 

Thou my wretched soul relieve, 
In that most extremest terror, 

When the body she must leave : 
Let the accuser of the brethren 

O'er me then no power receive ! 

Let the Prince of Darkness vanish, 

And Gehenna's legions fly ! 
Shepherd, Thou Thy sheep, thus ransom'd, 

To Thy country lead on high ; 
Where for ever in fruition 

I may see Thee eye to eye ! 

Amen. 



In the eleventh century, S. Fulbert, of Chartres, left several s. Fuibert. 
beautiful poems. The following Hymn for Eastertide is very fine : 

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem ! 
New strains and sweet attune your theme ! 
The while we keep, from care released, 
With sober joy our Paschal Feast. 



When Christ, the dragon-fiend o'ercome, 
Rose, Lion- Victor, from the tomb : 
And while with living voice He cries, 
The dead of other ages rise. 



Engorged in former years, their prey 
Must Death and Hell restore to-day : 
And many a captive soul, set free, 
With Jesus leaves captivity. 

Right gloriously He triumphs now, 
Worthy to whom should all things bow 
And joining heaven and earth again 
In one republic links the twain. 

r2 



244 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



S. Fulbert. And we, as these His deeds we sing, 
His suppliant soldiers, pray our King, 
That in His palace, bright and vast, 
We may keep watch and ward at last. 



Long as unending ages run 
To God the Father laud be done : 
To God the Son our equal praise, 
And God the Holy Ghost we raise. 
Amen. 



The following is of a different kind : 

When the earth with spring returning, vests herself in fresher sheen, 
And the glades and leafy thickets are arrayed in living green ; 
When a sweeter fragrance breatheth flowery fields and vales along, 
Then, triumphant in her gladness, Philomel begins her song : 
And with thick delicious warble far and wide her notes she flings, 
Telling of the happy springtide and the joys that summer brings. 
In the pauses of men's slumber deep and full she pours her voice, 
In the labour of his travel bids the wayfarer rejoice ; 
Night and day, from bush and greenwood, sweeter than an earthly lyre, 
She, unwearied songstress, carols, distancing the feather'd choir : 
Fills the hill-side, fills the valley, bids the groves and thickets ring, 
Made indeed exceeding glorious through the joyousness of spring. 
None could teach such heavenly music, none implant such tuneful skill, 
Save the King of realms celestial, who doth all things as He will. 



Hildebert. 



Of the many poems of Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, who 
lived from 1057 — 1134, the finest is that of which the following 
lines form the conclusion : — 



Mine be Sion's habitation, 
Sion, David's sure foundation : 
Form'd of old by light's Creator, 
Reached by Him, the Mediator : 
An Apostle guards the portal 
Denizen'd by forms immortal, 
On a jasper pavement builded, 
By its Monarch's radiance gilded. 
Peace there dwelleth uninvaded, 
Spring perpetual, light unfaded : 
Odours rise with airy lightness ; 
Harpers strike their harps of brightness 
None one sigh for pleasure sendeth : 
None can err, and none offendeth ; 
All, partakers of one nature, 
Grow in Christ to equal stature. 



Home celestial ! Home eternal ! 
Home upreared by power Supernal ! 
Home, no change or loss that fearest, 
From afar my soul thou cheerest : 
Thee it seeketh. thee requireth, 
Thee affecteth, Thee desireth. 
But the gladness of thy nation, 
But their fulness of salvation, 
Vainly mortals strive to show it ; 
They — and they alone — can know it, 
The redeemed from sin and peril, 
They who walk thy streets of beryl ! 
Grant me, Saviour, with Thy Blessed 
Of Thy Rest to be possessed, 
And, amid the joys it bringeth, 
Sing the song that none else singeth ! 



Marbodus. Marbodus, Bishop of Kennes, a contemporary of Hildebert, 
also left a good many poems ; the following is an extract from his 
Sequence on the Dedication of a Church : — 

These stones, arrayed in goodly row, 
Set forth the deeds of men below : 
The various tints that there have place, 
The multiplicity of grace : 
Who in himself that grace displays 
May shine with them in endless rays. 



S. BERNARD. 245 

Jerusalem, dear peaceful land ! Marbodus. 

These for thy twelve foundations stand : 

Blessed and nigh to God is he 

Who shall be counted worthy thee ! 

That Guardian slumbereth not, nor sleeps, 

Who in his charge thy turrets keeps. 

King of the Heavenly City blest ! 
Grant that Thy servants may have rest, 
This changeful life for ever past, 
And consort with Thy saints at last : 
That we, with all the choir above, 
May sing Thy power, and praise Thy love. 

Of the various compositions of S. Bernard, who died in 1153, s. Bernard 
the Jesu, dulcis memoria, is the most famous. As a whole, it con- 
sists of about 200 lines. We quote the following, the cento given 
in the Salisbury Breviary, employing the translation of the Hymnal 
Noted, published by the Ecclesiological Society : 

Jesu ! — The very thought is sweet ! 
In that dear name all heart-joys meet ; 
But sweeter than the honey far 
The glimpses of His presence are. 

No word is sung more sweet than this : 
No name is heard more full of bliss : 
No thought brings sweeter comfort nigh 
Than Jesus, Son of God Most High. 

Jesu ! the hope of souls forlorn ! 
How good to them for sin that mourn ! 
To them that seek Thee, oh how kind ! 
But what art Thou to them that find ! 

No tongue of mortal can express, 
No letters write its blessedness : 
Alone who hath Thee in his heart 
Knows, love of Jesus ! what thou art. 

O Jesu ! King of wondrous might ! 
O Victor, glorious from the fight ! 
Sweetness that may not be express'd, 
And altogether loveliest ! 

Bernard de Morley, a monk of Cluny, in his extraordinary Bernard de 
poem on the Contempt of the World, attained a higher strain than Moile ^ 
any of his contemporaries. The following extract may serve as an 
example : — 

To thee, O dear, dear country ! O one, only mansion ! 

Mine eyes their vigils keep ; O paradise of joy ! 

For very love beholding Where tears are ever banish'd, 

Thy happy name, they weep : And smiles have no alloy : 

The mention of thy glory Beside thy living waters 

Is unction to the breast, All plants are, great and small ; 

And medicine in sickness, The cedar of the forest, 

And love and life, and rest. The hyssop of the wall : 



246 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



Bernard de 
Morley. 



S. Notker 
Balbulus. 



With jaspers glow thy bulwarks, 

Thy streets with emeralds blaze 
The sardius and the topaz 

Unite in thee their rays : 
Thy ageless walls are bonded 

With amethyst unpriced ; 
Thy saints build up its fabric, 

And the corner-stone is Christ. 
Thou hast no shore, fair ocean ! 

Thou hast no time, bright day ! 
Dear fountain of refreshment 

To pilgrims far away ! 
Upon the Rock of Ages 

They raise thy holy tower, 
Thine is the victor's laurel, 

And thine the golden dower : 
Thou feel'st in mystic rapture, 

O bride that know'st no guile, 
The Prince's sweetest kisses, 

The Prince's loveliest smile : 
Unfading lilies, bracelets 

Of living pearl, thine own, 
The Lamb is ever near thee, 

The Bridegroom thine alone. 
And all thine eudless leisure 

In sweetest accents sings 
The ills that were thy merit, 

The joys that are thy King's. 



Jerusalem the golden ! 

With milk and honey blest, 
Beneath thy contemplation 

Sink heart and voice opprest ; 
I know not, oh, I know not 

What social joys are there, 
What radiancy of glory, 

What light beyond compare : 
And when I fain would sing them 

My spirit fails and faints, 
And vainly would it image 

The assembly of the Saints. 
They stand, those halls of Sion, 

Conjubilant with song, 
And bright with many an angel, 

And many a martyr throng : 
The Prince is ever in them, 

The light is aye serene ; 
The pastures of the blessed 

Are decked in glorious sheen : 
There is the throne of David, 

And there, from toil released, 
The shout of them that triumph, 

The song of them that feast : 
And they, beneath their Leader, 

Who conquered in the fight, 
For ever and for ever 

Are clad in robes of white. 



But in the eleventh century a new kind of poem found its way 
into the Church, which thenceforth gave full employment to eccle- 
siastical bards. S. Notker Balbulus, a monk of St. Gall, who died 
in 1012, was the first author of Sequences, or hymns sung between 
the Epistle and the Gospel in the Mass. These are of two kinds — 
those more properly called Proses, though the name was afterwards 
applied to both, the metre of which has been expounded by 
the author in his Seguewtiarum Collection (though to enter into their 
laws would lead us too far from our immediate subject,) and the 
more regular and rhythmical kind. 

Of the former, the following, which we give in the original, may 
serve as an example ; we note the corresponding lines with cor- 
responding letters : 

Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia, 
a Quse corda nostra sibi faciat habitacula 
a Expulsis inde cunctis vitiis spiritalibus. 
b Spiritus alme, illustrator omnium, 
b Horridas nostrae mentis purga tenebras : 
c Amator sancte sensatorum semper cogitatuum, 
c Infunde unctionem tuam clemens nostris sensibus. 
dTu purificator omnium flagitiorum, Spiritus, 
d Purifica nostri oculum interioris hominis, 



J.H. Parker, 1852. 



ADAM OF S. VICTOR. 247 

e Ut videri supremus Genitor possit a nobis, s Ncrtker 

e Mundi cordis quem soli cernere possunt oculi. Balbulus. 

/ Prophetas tu inspirasti, ut prseconia Christi praecinuissent inclyta : 
/ Apostolos confortasti, uti tropaeum Christi per totum mundum veherent. 
g Quando machinam per Verbum suum fecit Deus cceli, terrae, mariuin, 
g Tu super aquas, foturus eas, numen tuum expandisti, Spiritus. 
h Tu animabus vivificandis aquas faecundas : 
h Tu aspirando das spiritales esse homines. 

i Tu divisum per linguas mundum et ritus adunasti, Domine. 

i Idolloatras ad cultum Dei revocas, magistrorum optime. 
k Ergo nos supplicantes tibi exaudi propitius, Sancte Spiritus, 
h Sine quo pieces omnes cassae creduntur, et indignae Dei auribus, 

I Tu qui omnium saeculorum sanctos tui nominis docuisti instinctu amplec- 
tendo, Spiritus. 

I Ipse hodie Apostolos Christi donans munere insolito et cunctis inaudito seculis 
Hanc diem gloriosam fecisti. 

The following, Victimce Paschali, which we give from the Hymnal 
Noted, is one of the most famous : 

To the Paschal Victim, Christians, bring the sacrifice of praise. 

The Lamb the Sheep hath ransom'd ; Christ, the undefiled, sinners to his God 

and Father hath reconciled. 
Death and Life, in wond'rous strife, came to conflict sharp and sore : Life's 

Monarch, He that died, now dies no more. 
What thou sawest, Mary, say, as thou wentest on thy way. 
I saw the Slain One's earthly prison : I saw the glory of the Risen : — 
The witness- Angels by the cave : — and the garments of the grave. 
The Lord, my hope, hath risen : and He shall go before to Galilee. 
We know that Christ is risen from death indeed : — Thou victor Monarch, for 

Thy suppliants plead. Amen. Allelulia ! 

Iii the more regular and rhythmical kind of Sequences, Adam of Adam of i 
S. Victor has the preeminence. We quote Mr. Trench's admirable Vlctor - 
critique : — 

" Very different estimates have been formed of the merits of 
Adam of S. Victor's hymns. His greatest admirers will hardly 
deny that he pushes too far, and plays over much with, his skill in 
the typical application of the Old Testament. So, too, they must 
own that sometimes he is unable to fuse with perfect success his 
manifold learned allusion into the passion of his poetry." " Nor less 
must it be allowed that he is sometimes guilty of concetti or plays 
upon words, not altogether worthy of the solemnity of his theme. 
Thus, of one martyr he says," 

Sub securi stat securus ; 

of another, 

Dum torretur, non terretur ; 

of the Blessed Virgin, 



of Heaven, 



dulcis vena veniae ; 

quam beata curia 
Quae cures prorsus nescia. 



248 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



Adam of 
S. Victor. 



, 



Sometimes he is fond of displaying feats of skill in versification, of 
prodigally accumulating, or curiously interlacing his rhymes, that 
he may show his perfect mastery of the forms which he is using, 
and how little he is confined or trammelled by them. 

" These faults, it will seen, are indeed, most of them, but merits 
pushed into excess. And even accepting them as defects, his pro- 
found acquaintance with the whole circle of the theology of his 
time, and eminently with its exposition of Scripture — the abundant 
and admirable use, with indeed the drawback already mentioned, 
which he makes of it, delivering as he thus does his poems from the 
merely subjective cast of those, beautiful as they are, of S. Bernard ; 
the exquisite art and variety with which for the most part his verse 
is managed, and his rhymes disposed, their rich melody multiplying 
and ever deepening at the close, — the strength which often he con- 
centrates into a single line, — his skill in conducting a narration — 
and most of all, the evident nearness of the things which he cele- 
brates to his own heart of hearts — all these, and other excellences, 
render him, as far as my judgment goes, the foremost among the 
sacred Latin poets of the middle ages." 

The three following hymns may give an idea of his manner : 

The first is a Sequence for Easter : 



Hail the much-remembered day i 
Night from morning flies away, 

Life the chains of death hath burst 
Gladness, welcome ! grief, begone ! 
Greater glory draweth on 

Than confusion at the first. 
Flies the shadowy from the true ; 
Flies the ancient from the new : 

Comfort hath each tear dispersed. 

Hail, our Pascha, that wast dead ! 
What preceded in the Head 

That each member hopes to gain ; 
Christ our newer Pascha now, 
Late in death content to bow, 

When the spotless Lamb was slain. 

Christ the prey hath here unbound 
From the foe that girt us round ; 
Which in Samson's deed is found, 

When the lion he had slain : 
David, in his Father's cause, 
From the lion's hungry jaws, 
And the bear's devouring paws, 

Hath set free His flock again. 

He that thousands slew by dying, 
Samson, Christ is typifying, 

Who by death o'ercame his foes : 
Samson, by interpretation, 



Is " their Sunlight : " Our Salvation 
Thus hath brought illumination 

To the Elect on whom He rose. 

From the Cross's pole of glory 
Flows the must of ancient story 

In the Church's wine vat stored 
From the press, now trodden duly, 
Gentile first-fruits gathered newly 

Drink the precious liquor poured 

Sackcloth worn with foul abuses 
Passes on to royal uses ; 
Grace in that garb at length we see, 
The Flesh hath conquered misery. 

They by whom their Monarch perished 
Lost the kingdom that they cherished, 
And for a sign and wonder Cain 
Is set, who never shall be slain. 

Reprobated and rejected 

Was this stone that, now elected, 

For a trophy stands erected 

And a precious cornerstone : 
Sin's, not Nature's, termination, 
He creates a new Creation, 
And, Himself their colligation, 

Binds two peoples into one. 

Give we glory to the Head, 
O'er the members love be shed ! 



ADAM OF S. VICTOR. 



249 



The second is on the Four Evangelists : — ■ 



Faithful flock, in whose possessing 
Is your Heavenly Father's blessing, 
Gladness, in His lore progressing, 

From Ezekiel's Vision draw ; 
John the Prophet's witness sharing, 
In the Apocalypse declaring, 
" This I write, true record hearing 

Of the things I truly saw." 

Round the Throne, 'midst Angel natures, 
Stand four holy living creatures, 
Whose diversity of features 

Maketh good the Seer's plan : 
This an Eagle's visage knoweth : 
That a Lion's image showeth : 
Scripture on the rest hestoweth 

The twain forms of Ox and Man. 

These are they, the symbols mystic 

Of the forms Evangelistic, 

Whose four Gospels, dews majestic, 

Still the Church's portion be : 
Matthew first, and Mark the second : 
Luke with these is rightly reckoned : 
And the loved Apostle, beckoned 

By the Lord from Zebedee. 

Matthew's form the man supplieth, 

For that thus he testifieth 

Of the Lord, that none denieth 

Him to spring from man He made : 
Luke's the ox, in figure special, 
As a creature sacrificial, 
For that he the rites judicial 

Of Mosaic law displayed. 

Mark the wilds as lion shaketh, 
And the desert hearing quaketh, 
Preparation while he maketh 

That the heart with God be right ; 



John, love's double wing devising, 
Earth on eagle plumes despising, 
To his God and Lord uprising 
Soars away in purer light. 

Symbols quadriform uniting 
They of Christ are thus inditing : 
Quadriform His acts, which writing 

They produce before our eyes : 
Man, — whose birth man's law obeyeth : 
Ox, — whom victim's passion slayeth : 
Lion, — when on death He preyeth : 

Eagle, — soaring to the skies. 

These the creature forms ethereal 
Round the Majesty imperial 
Seen by prophets ; but material 

Difference 'twixt the visions springs : 
Wheels are rolling, — wings are flying,— 
Scripture lore this signifying ; — 
Step with step, as wheels, complying, 

Contemplation by the wings. 

Paradise is satiated, 

Blossoms, thrives, is fecundated, 

With the waters irrigated 

From these streams that aye proceed 
Christ the fountain, they the river, 
Christ the source, and they the giver 
Of the streams that they deliver 

To supply His people's need. 

In these streams our souls bedewing, 
That more fully we ensuing 
Thirst of goodness, and renewing, 

Thirst more fully may allay : 
We their holy doctrine follow 
From the gulf that gapes to swallow, 
And from pleasures vain and hollow 

To the joys of heavenly Day. 



Adam of 
S. Victor. 



The third is for the Festival of any Saint : 



The Church on earth, with answering love, 
Repeats the Church's joys above ; 
And while her annual feasts she keeps, 
For feasts that never end she weeps. 

In this w< -Id's valley, dim and wild, 
The mother must assist the child ; 
And angel guards, in meet array, 
Keep watch and ward around our way. 

The world, the flesh, and spirits ill, 
Array their wars against us still ; 
And when their phantom hosts move on, 
The Sabbath of the heart is gone. 



And storms confused above us lower 
Of hope and fear, and joy and woe ; 
And scarcely even for one half hour 
Is silence in God's house below. 

That distant city, oh how blest, 
Whose festival no foes infest ! 
How gladsome is that royal court 
Where care and fear have no resort ! 

Nor languor here, nor weary age, 
Nor fraud, nor dread of hostile rage ; 
But one the voice, and one the song, 
And one the heart of all the throng. 






250 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

Thomas of Of other writers of Sequences we may name Thomas of Celano, 
Ceiano. ^g author of the most magnificent of Ecclesiastical poems, the 
Dies irse. Dies Ira. Of this it has been well said : 

" Of all the Latin hymns of the Church this is the best known ; 
for, as Daniel has truly remarked — "Even they, who have no acquaint- 
ance with the Hymns of the Latin Church, at least know this. If 
there be any one so lost to all human feeling as not to understand 
the sweetness of sacred song, let him read this hymn, whose 
words are so many thunders." Its introduction in Faust may 
have helped to bring it to the knowledge of some who would not 
otherwise have known it ; or, if they had, would not have be- 
lieved its worth, but that the sage and seer of tins world had thus 
stood sponsor to it, and set his seal of recognition upon it. 

" The sublime use which Goethe has made of it in that drama will 
be remembered by all. To another illustrious man this hymn was 
eminently dear. How affecting is that incident recorded of Sir 
Walter Scott, by his biographer, — how, in the last days of his life, 
when all of his great mind had failed, or was failing, he was yet 
heard to murmur to himself some lines of this hymn, which had been 
an especial favourite with him in other days. Nor is it hard to 
understand or explain the wide and general popularity which it has 
enjoyed. 

" The metre so grandly devised, of which we remember no other 
example, fitted though it has here shown itself for bringing out 
some of the noblest powers of the Latin language — the solenm 
effect of the triple rhyme, which has been likened to blow following 
blow of the hammer on the anvil — the confidence of the poet in 
the universal interest of his theme, a confidence which has made him 
set out his matter with so majestic and unadorned a plainness, as 
at once to be intelligent to all, — these merits, with many more, have 
continued to give the Dies Irce a high place, indeed one of the 
highest, among the masterpieces of sacred song." 

The following translation is that of Mr. Irons : 

Day of wrath ! O Day of mourning ! Lo, the Book, exactly worded ! 

See ! once more the Cross returning — Wherein all hath heen recorded ; — 

Heav'n and earth in ashes burning! Hence shall judgment be awarded. 

O what fear man's bosom rendeth, When the Judge His seat attaineth, 

When from heav'n the judge descendeth, And each hidden deed arraignetb, 
On whose sentence all depeudeth ! Nothing unavenged remaineth. 

Wondrous sound the Trumpet flingeth, What shall I, frail man, be pleading- 

Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth, Who for me be interceding — 

All before the throne it bringeth. When the just are mercy needing? 

Death is struck, and nature quaking — King of majesty tremendous, 

All creation is awaking, Who dost free salvation send us, 

To its judge an answer making ! Fount of pity ! then befriend us ! 



JAMES DE BENEDICTIS. 



251 



Think, kind Jesu ! — my salvation 
> Caus'd Thy wond'rous incarnation : 
Leave me not to reprobation ! 

Faint and weary Thou hast sought me, 
On the Cross of suffering bought me ;— 
Shall such grace he vainly brought me : 

Righteous Judge of Retribution, 

Grant thy gift of absolution, 

■Ere that reckoning-day's conclusion ; 

.Guilty, now I pour my moaning, 
.All my shame with anguish owning ; 
Spare, God, thy suppliant, groaning. 

Thou, the sinful woman savedst — ■ 
• Thou the dying thief forgavest ; 
And to me a hope vouchsafest ! 



Worthless are my prayers and sighing, Dies Irae. 
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying, 
Rescue me from fires undying ! 

With Thy favour' d sheep, place me ! 
Nor among the goats abase me ; 
But to thy right hand upraise me. 

While the wicked are confounded, 
Doom'd to flames of woe unbounded, 
Call me ! with Thy saints surrounded. 

Low I kneel, with heart-submission ; 
See, like ashes, my contrition — 
Help me, in my last condition ! 

Ah ! that day of tears and mourning ! 
From the dust of earth returning 
Man for judgment must prepare him ; 
Spare ! O God, in mercy spare him ! 
Lord of mercy, Jesus blest, 
Grant them thine eternal rest ! — Amen! 



James de Benedictis, or Jacojpone, as lie was familiarly called, James de 
among his other poems left the celebrated Stabat Mater. We Benedlctls - 
employ Mr. Wackerbarth's translation : 



See the mother stands deploring, 
r By the cross her tears out-pouring, 
1 Where her Son expiring hangs ; 
; For her gentle spirit groaning, 

Anguish-smitten and bemoaning, 
Rend the sword's most cruel -pangs. 



Grant, mother, love's out-springing, 
Me to feel thy sorrows wringing, 

Bid me share thy cup of woe : 
Make my heart for ever fervent, 
Christ my God's adoring servant, 

That his pleasure I may do. 



i Oh how downcast and distressed, 
Was the mother ever blessed 

Of the sole-begotten One, 
Who lamented and who grieved, 
Mother mild, as she perceived 

Torments rack her heav'nly Son, 



Bid me bear, O Mother blessed, 
On my heart the wounds impressed, 

Suffered by the Crucified ; 
And thy Son's most bitter passion, 
Rack'd in so remorseless fashion 

All for me, with me divide. 



Who could keep from tears of anguish, 
Could he see Christ's mother languish 

Thus in grief and suffering wild ? 
Who his agony could smother, 
Could he see his gentle mother 

Sorrowing with her holy child ? 



With thee weeping in communion, 
With the Crucified in union, 

Long as life within me plays. 
By the cross with thee remaining, 
Joined with thee in grief and plaining, 

Such the boon thy servant prays. 



For his people sacrificed 
She beheld Christ agonised, 

And beneath the scourger's rod,- 
She beheld her offspring blessed 
Die forsaken and distressed, 

As He gave His soul to God. 



Queen of Virgins, heav'n-adorned, 
Let me not of thee be scorned, 

Let me share thy grief and woe. 
Jesu's death my study making, 
In His agony partaking, 

Make me all His tortures know. 



James de 
Bcnedictis. 



S. Thomas 
Aquinas. 



252 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



All His bitter torments feeling, 
In the Cross my spirit reeling, 

In His blood my senses drown ; 
That, all glowing with affection, 
I may find in thee protection 

When to judgment He comes down. 



In the Cross salvation yield me, 
And in Jesu's passion shield me, 

Cherish me with mercy's aid. 
When my earthly frame shall perish, 
Crant around my soul to flourish 

Eden's joys that never fade. 

Amen. 



After S. Thomas Aquinas, who died in 1274, the fount of 
mediaeval poetry seems to have begun to dry. The following is 
one of his most famous hymns : 



Of the glorious Body telling, 
O my tongue, its mystery sing, 

And the Blood, all price excelling, 
Which for this world's ransoming, 

In a generous womb once dwelling, 
He shed forth, the Gentile's King. 

Given for us, for us descending 

Of a Virgin to proceed, 
Man with man in converse blending, 

Scattered He the Gospel seed : 
Till his sojourn drew to ending, 

Which He closed in wondrous deed. 

At the last Great Supper seated, 
Circled by His brethren's band, 

All the Law required, completed 
In the meat its statutes planned, 

To the Twelve Himself He meted 
For their food with his own hand. 



Word made flesh, by word He truly 
Makes true bread His flesh to be : 

Wine Christ's blood becometh newly 
And if senses fail to see, 

Faith alone the true heart duly 
Strengthens for the mystery. 

Such a sacrament, inclining, 
Worship we with reverent awe : 

Ancient rites their place resigning 
To a new and nobler law : 

Faith her supplement assigning 
To make good the sense's flaw. 

Honour, laud, and praise addressing 
To the Father and the Son, 

Might ascribe we, virtue, blessing, 
And eternal benison : 

Holy Ghost, from both progressing, 
Equal laud to Thee be done ! 



Of later poems we may quote a very elegant German Sequence, 
of the fourteenth or fifteenth century : beaia beatorum. 



Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs, 
Saintly days of saintly men, 

With affection's recollections, 
Greet we your return again. 

Worthy are they worthy wonders 
To perform, the conflict o'er : 

We with meetest praise and sweetest 
Venerate them evermore. 

Faith unblenching, Hope unquenching, 
Dear-loved Lord, and simple heart ; 

Thus they glorious and victorious 
Bore the martyr's happy part. 

Carceration, trucidation, 

Many a torment fierce and long, 
Fire, and axe, and laceration 

Tried and glorified the throng. 



While they passed through divers torture? 

Till they sank by death opprest, 
Earth's rejected were elected 

To have portion with the Blest. 

By contempt of worldly pleasures, 

And by mighty battles done, 
Have they merited with angels 

To be knit for aye in one. 

Wherefore made coheirs of glory, 
Ye that sit with Christ on high, 

Join to ours your supplications, 
As for grace and peace we cry : 

That this naughty life completed, 

And its many labours past, 
We may merit to be seated 

In our Lord's bright home at last. 



CONCLUSION. 



253 



Such was the remarkable phase of Latin poetry designated by the 
term ecclesiastical — maintaining vitality, richness, and its own 
peculiar features, alike through the decay and artificial revival of 
the classical school, and in no degree affected by either. Deeply 
interesting as is the subject to the theologian, it is only in a literary 
point of view that it demands notice in this work. 

The much-vaunted intellectual liberality and comprehensive spirit 
of our times has no brighter evidence of its pretensions than that 
scholars are learning to enjoy Damian and De Celano without 
losing ear or heart for the melody and sublimity of Horace and 
Virgil. 




J 



EDITIONS OF ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETS, 



COMMODIANUS. 

The most convenient edition for the English reader is that (containing also 
Minucius Felix) of Davies, Cambridge, 1712. It has Rigaltius's notes 
and his own ; but very much praise cannot be given to either. 

JUVENCUS. 

There have been at least thirty editions of Juvencus. The most remark- 
able are — the Princeps, without date or note of place, but about 1490 ; 
it contains also the Psychomachia of Prudentius, the verses of S. Cyprian 
de ligno Cruris, &c. : the Aldine of 1501, containing the other Christian 
poets; with Sedulius, Cologne, 1537, a convenient edition: that of 
Reusch, Frankfort, 1710 ; and the noble one of Arevalus, Eome, 1792. 

PRUDENTIUS. 

The best editions of his works are : — The Piinceps, without note of place or 
time, but to be known by the colophon at the end, which speaks of 
the hook (in the singular) against Symmachus ; those of Deventer, 
1472 and 1495 ; that of Ne brissensis, 1512 ; that of Antwerp, by Plantin, 
1564 ; that by Wertz, 1613 ; the Delphin, 1687 (Chamillard was 
editor) ; that of Arevalus, Rome, 1788 ; the Variorum of Valpy, 1824 ; 
and that of Obbarius. A convenient pocket-edition is that of 
Amsterdam, 1631. 

SEDULIUS. 

Between forty and fifty editions of his works have been published, very 
frequently together with those of Juvencus. The best are : — The 
Editio Princeps, published at Paris, without date, but to be known by 
its colophon, Quinto Calendas Martias ex officina Ascensiana, apud 
Parrhisios ; that of Saragossa, 1515, with the paraphrase of Nebri3- 
sensis ; that of Gruner, Leipsic, 1747; and that of Arevalus, Rome, 
1794. 

DRACONTIUS. 

There have been about fifteen editions. The Princeps, which contained 
several other works of early Christian poets, was published in Paris in 
1560 : the best are those of Carpsov, Helmstadt, 1794, and of Arevalus, 
Rome, 1791. 

ARATOR. 

The best editions are : — The Princeps, the same with that of Juvencus ; 
the Aldine, of 1501 ; that of Basle, 1537 ; and that of Fabricius, which 
is extremely convenient for all the Christian Poets, Basle, 1564. 



EDITIONS OF ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETS. 255 



THE PRINCIPAL HYMNOLOGIES, &c, ARE THE FOLLOWING. 

1. Hymni de Tempore et de Sanctis. Ed. Joannes Wimphelingus. 

Argentorat. 1519. 

2. Sequentiarum luculenta Expositio. Per Joannem Adelphum. Ar- 

gentorat. 1519. 

3. Hymni et Sequential cum diligenti interpretatione. Ed. Hermannus 

ToiTentinus. Colonise, 1513, 1536. 

4. Elucidatorium Ecclesiasticum. Auctore Jodoco Clichtovceo. Parisiis, 

1515, 1556. Basil. 1517, 1519. Venet. 1555. Colon. 1732. The 
first part contains an exposition of the Hymns ; the second, of the 
Sequences. 

5. Hymnarium. [Inter opera Cardin. Thomasii. Tom. 2. Ed. VezzosL 1747.] 

6. Anthologie Christlicher Gesange. Von A. J. Rambach. Altona, 1817. 

7. Thesaurus Hymnologicus. Ed. H. A. Daniel. The first part, Halle, 

1841, contains the Hymns ; the second, Leipsic, 1844, the Sequences. 

In England there have appeared — 

1. Hymni Ecclesiae, e Breviario Parisiensi. [Ed. J. H. Newman.] 

Oxon. 1838. 

2. Hymni Ecclesia?, e Breviario Romano, &c. [Ed. J. H. Newman.] 

Oxon. 1838. This latter is nearly valueless, as containing the 
modernised Roman forms. 

3. Sacred Latin Poetry, chiefly lyrical, with notes, &c. By R. C. 

Trench. London, 1849. 

4. Hymnale secundum usum insignis et prseclarae Ecclesiae Sarisbu- 

riensis. [Ed. C. Marriott.] Littlemore, 1850. 

5. Hymni ex Breviariis Gallicanis, Germanis, Hispanis, Lusitanis, de- 

sumpti. Ed. Joann. M. Neale. Oxon. 1850. 

6. Hymnarium Sarisburiense. Cum rubricis, notis musicis, variis lec- 

tionibus. Londini : Darling : 1851. [The first part only yet 
published.] 

7. Sequentise ex Missalibus Germanicis, Gallicis, Anglicis, aliisque 

medii sevi collects. Ed. Joann. M. Neale. Londini : J. W. 
Parker : 1852. [Contains a collection of 120 Sequences not 
given by DanieL] 

The Hymns cited from the Hymnal Noted are, by the kind permission 
of Mr. Novello, the publisher, taken from these works, published 
under the sanction of the Ecclesiological Society. 

1. A Hymnal Noted ; Or Translations of the Ancient Hymns of the 

Church, set to their proper melodies. Edited by the Rev. 
J. M. Neale, M.A., and the Rev. Thomas Helmore, M.A. 

2. Accompanying Harmonies to the Hymnal Noted. By the Rev. 

T. Helmore, M.A. 

3. The Words of the Hymnal, in a separate form. 

Those quoted from the author's translations of Mediaeval Hymns are so 
taken by permission of the publisher, Mr. Masters. 



APPENDIX. 

ON THE MEASURES EMPLOYED BY MEDIAEVAL POETS. 



As a conclusion to the foregoing article, it seems desirable to give a short and 
tabular view of the metres which the ecclesiastical writers of the middle ages 
most commonly employed. The Labyrinthus of Eberhard is a store-house of 
information on the subject. Sir Alexander Croke, in his essay on rhyming 
Latin poetry, has availed himself largely of that work. He is very meagre, 
however, in his account of every measure except hexameters and pentameters. 

I. Hexameters. 

1 . Without rhyme : 

Alma chorus Domini nunc pangat nomina summi, 
Messias, Soter, Emanuel, Sabaoth, Adonai. 

2. Leonine (so called either from their kingly superiority to all other kinds, 
or from Leonius, a monk of S. Victor's, at Marseilles, about 1135) : 

Si veluti quondam scriptor vel scripta placerent 
In nova dicendo multi, velut ante, studerent. 
Sed sic sub vitio cunctorum corda tenentur 
Ut sic qui scribant, quasi delirare videntur. 

A variety of this is — 

(1.) The double Leonine : 

Quod mea verba monent, tu noli credere vento : 
Cordis in aure sonent, et sic retinere memento. 

(2.) The reciprocal Leonine : 



3. Cristati 



Lux hypergaei studiosa ministra diei 

Aufert lumen ei, spatium quoque dat requiei. 



Quam nimis insanus praeses fuerit Dacianus, 

Ex scelerum gestis illius scire potestis. 

Hie apud Hispanos ritus recolendo profanos 

Jusserat inquiri si forte queant reperiri 

Qui Christum credant, nee ab hoc errore recedant 

Hos graviter plecti praeceperat, aut cito flecti. 



APPENDIX. 257 

These verses are almost always metrical, although the last syllable of the medial 
rhyme is considered to he lengthened hy position : as — 

Coelorum, Christe, placeat tihi Rex sonus iste. 
Inquit : Digesta per te mihi sunt inhonesta. 
Nee fari digna, cum sint portenta maligna. 

The general rule is that the second foot must he either a spondee, or, if a dactyl, 
must end its second syllable with a word : e.g.' — 

Nos simul ahsque [ malis sociaret taeda jugalis. 

Else we get a rhyme which is merely so to the eye : as — 

Nescio quo rapem, vel qu4 levitate movem. 
Attonitus super his quae lingua minet mulim's. 

Varieties of Cristati were — 

(1 .) Cornuti — where the final rhyme was on two words : 

Clam lacerat ccecos, bona limat, ut invidiae cos. 
(2.) Inversi — where the medial rhyme falls in the middle of a word : 

Carmina jam marce|re vides : fesso mihi parce. 

(3.) Cristati of one rhyme : 

Est quadrupes Panther, quo nunquam pulchrior alter, 
Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato : 
Diversis pastus venatiLus et satiatus 
Se capit, atque cavo dormit prostratus in antro. 

(4.) Epanaleptici : 

Hie docet, hie discit, fugat hie, fugit ille fugantem, 
Hie natat, hie nantem capit, undique terra dehiscit. 

4. Trilices, and these of several kinds. 
(1.) Trilices cristati : 

Pelle ferum | contemne merum [ Dominum cole verum. 
(2.) Trilices leonini : 

a. "With caesura : 

Stella maris, quae sola paris sine conjuge prolem, 
Justitiae clarum specie super omnia solem : 
Gemma decens, rosa nata recens perfecta decore, 
Mella cavis inclusa favis mutata sapore. 

)8. Without caesura, and that 

(o.) Spondaic : 



[B. L.] 



O miseratrix, dominatrix, praecipe dictu, 
Ne devoremur, ne lapidemur, grandinis ictu. 



258 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

(j8.) Dactylic, one of the loveliest of mediaeval measures 

Stant Syon atria conjubilantia, martyre plena, 
Cive micantia, Principe stantia, luce serena : 
Est ibi pascua mitibus afflua, prsestita Sanctis, 
Regis ibi thronus, agminis et sonus est epulantis. 
Gens duce splendida, concio Candida vestibus albis, 
Sunt sine fletibus in Syon aedibus,8edibus almis: 
Sunt sine crimine, sunt sine turbine, sunt sine lite 
In Syon aedibus editioribus Israelite. 

II. Hexameter and Pentameter. 

1. Without rhyme : 

Verum quispoterit exponere sufficienter 

Quas laudes dederunt plebs proceresque Deo ? 

Virtutes etiam Machometis ad astra levabant 
Quod sibi par hominum nullus in orbe fuit. 

2. Cristati, with single rhyme : 

Fit novus in Christo ter mersus gurgite vivo 
De quo, Sum vivus fons, ait ille pius. 

08 terit obliquim per verba precantia Christwm, 
Quod Christus petra sit, litera saepe tulit. 

3. Cristati, with double rhyme : 



Sicut ad ima redit quicquid locus infimus edit, 
Et liber finis non valet esse cinis, 

Sic res e sursum vernens petit aethera rursum, 
Ut semper maneat quod Deus ipse creat. 



4. Leonines : 



Et fuit ex auro Thares fabricator eorum, 
Cum quibus instituit Rex Ninevita forum. 



5. Double Leonines 



Si tibi grata seges est morum, gratus haberis ; 
Si virtutis eges, despiciendus eris. 

6. Inverted Leonines : 

Hsec bene qui quserit fugiat solatia mundi : 
Finis jucundi turn sibi certus erit. 

7. Two hexameters, and a pentameter, Leonine : 

Denarios triginta Deo quos inde tulerunt, 
In gazam templi, Jesu mandante, dederunt ; 
Quos Judam pretio posthabuisse ferunt. 

8. Two hexameters, Leonine : a pentameter, cristatus : 

Tunc in ea crypta tria sunt haec dona relicta : 
Aurum, thus, myrrha, vestisque Dei benedicta 
Pastores veniunt, ipsaque dona vehunt. 

And this list might easily be extended. 



APPENDIX. 



259 



Til. Sapphics. 

1 . Metrical : 

Qui pius, prudens, hutrrilis, pudicus, 
Sobrius, castus fuit et quietus : 
Vita dum praesens vegetavit ejus 

Corporis artus. 

2. Accentual, with rhyme : there are many varieties, the most usual is this : 

Festum insigne prsesulis amati 
Colimus digne : Sanctas Trinitati 
Solvere vota surgimus in tota 

Devotione. 
Festo prassenti sancto confessore 
Sumus intenti : gaudia canore 
Carmine damus : tibi jubilamus 

Petitione. 

3. Accentual, without rhyme : 

Dicentes regi, Domine, quid facis ? 
Contra teipsum malum operaris 
Cum Rodericum sublimari sinis ; 

Displicet nobis. 

4. A more extraordinary measure is the Sapphic with a redundant syllable, 
which is by some considered a trimeter Iambic, followed by an Adonic : 

Gloriam Deo in excelsis hodie 
Ccelestis primum cecinit exercitus : 
Pax Angelorum et in terra vocibus 
Vera descendit. 

IV. ChoRiambics. 

lo Quasi-metrical: 

Sanctorum meritis inclyta gaudia 
Pangamus socii gestaque fortia : 
Nam gliscit animus promere cantibus 

Victorum genus optimum. 



2. Accentual: 



Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia, 
Et ex praecordiis sonent praeconia ; 
Recedant Vetera ; nova sint omnia, 
Corda, voces, et opera. 



V. Iambics. 



The following are the chief measures out of an almost innumerable variety : 

1. Dimeter catalectic, 

(1.) Without rhyme, but metrical : 

Fac cum, vocante somno, 
Castum petis cubile, 
Frontem locumque cordis 
Crucis figura signet. 

s2 



260 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

(2.) Without rhyme or metre, but simply syllabic : 

Nam tempus illud hoc est 
Quod Jeremias dicit 
Surgendum esse nobis 
Primordio in noctis. 

(3.) With rhyme : 

O mira lex vivendi ! 
De casu moriendi 
Vis oritur nascendi. 

Jerusalem, exulta ! 

2. Dimeter. 

(1.) Without rhyme : 

Alvus tumescit Virginis, 
Claustrum pudoris permanet, 
Vexilla virtu turn micant, 
Versatur in templo Deus. 

(2.) Without rhyme or metre, but simply syllabic : 

Medio noctis tempore 
Pergens vastator Angelus 
Egypto mortem inferens 
Delevit primogenita. 

(3.) With assonant rhymes : 

Vexilla Regis prodeunt : 
Fulget Crucis mysterium : 
Quo carne carnis conditor 
Suspensus est patibulo. 

(4.) With consonant rhymes : 

Chorus novae Jerusalem 
Novam meli dulcedinem 
Promat, colens cum sobriis 
Paschale festum gaudiis. 

(5.) With triple rhymes : 

Hoc ut prsestamus, Domine, 
Praesta in tuo nomine, 
Sine quo labor deficit, 
Qui nihil digne eificit. 

(6.) With alternate rhymes : 

Lauda, Mater Ecclesia, 
Lauda Christi clementiam, 
Qui septem purgat vitia 
Per septiformem gratiam. 

(7.) Stanzas of six lines : 

Veni, veni, Emmanuel, 
Captivum solve Israel 
Qui gemit in exilio 
Privatus Dei Filio : 
Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel 
Nascetur pro te, Israel ! 



APPENDIX. 261 

(#.) Stanzas of two lines : 

Puer natus in Bethlehem, 
Unde gaudet Jerusalem. 

(9.) Stanzas of six lines, alternately Iambic dimeter and Trochaic dimeter 
catalectic : 

Paschalis festi gaudium 
Mundi replet ambitum : 
Ccelum, tellus, et maria 
Lseta promant carmina : 
Et Alleluia consonis 
Modulentur organis. 

It is to be observed that, after the Xllth century, the rhymes of dimeter 
Iambics are generally double, — it being considered sufficient that the first rhyme 
should be assonant, even where the second was strictly consonant : e. g. — 

Ortu lucis jam proximo 
Hymnum dicamus Dommo, 
Apostolis condebitam 
Ferentes reverenfa'am. 

As the great majority of the Hymns of the Church are written in dimeter 
Iambics, it may be useful to lay down a few plain rules for ascertaining their age. 
There will, of course, be exceptions ; and beyond everything, a certain kind of 
tact is necessary in determining the date of such compositions ; but the following 
rules, so far as they go, will be found of very general application : — 

1 . If the Hymn, evidently not renaissance, be metrical, and without rhyme, or 
nearly corresponding to these conditions, it is earlier than the time of S. Gregory 
the Great. 

2. If it be without rhyme, but not metrical, it will probably be of Gotho- 
Hispanic origin, and before the Vlllth century. The ruder the accentuation, 
the more probable this becomes ; and if there be any instances of the use of the 
ablative for the accusative, as Intrare sanctd regid for Intrare sanctam regiam, 
it is absolutely certain. 

3. A Hymn with alternate rhymes, though such do occur as early as the Xth 
century, is probably not earlier than the XIHth or XlVth. 

4. Hymns that conclude each verse with the first line of some well-known 
Hymn are scarcely earlier than the XVth century. 

5. Hymns which rhyme assonantly are probably earlier than the Xlth century, 
and the greater striving after assonance the later the Hymn. 

6. Hymns which rhyme consonantly, and with double rhymes, are not later 
than the XIHth century. 

We proceed : — 

(10.) Iambic trimeter brachycatalectic : 



Sancti venite, corpus Christi sumite, 
Sanctum bibentes, quo redempti, sanguinem, 



(11.) Iambic trimeter : 



Aurea. luce et decore roseo 
Lux lucis ornne perfudisti sa:culum, 
Decorans coelos inclyto martyrio 
H&c sacra die, quae dat reis veniam. 



262 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 

This stanza, as consisting of twelve syllables, is almost confined to the Festivals 
of the Apostles. 

(12.) Iambic tetrameter catalectic. 

This is scarcely found earlier than the XVIth century, and generally with triple 
assonant medial rhymes : 

Morosus es et tetricm morborum cinctus choro ? 
iEgrotus tecum medicus decumbit Crucis thoro : 
Non est a Christi vertict ad plantam pedis vena 
Quam non per te, O perdite, major affligit poena. 

VI. Trochaics. 

These show mediaeval Latin in its full power : it is impossible to do more than 
give a list of the most common metres. 

1. Tetrameter catalectic. 

(1.) Without rhyme : 

Hymnus dicat turba fratrum, hymnus cantus personat 
Christo Regi concinentes laudes demus debitas. 

(2.) With final rhyme : 

Gravi me terrore pulsas, vit* dies ultima : 
Mceret cor, solvuntur renes, lsesa tremunt viscera, 
Tuam speciem dum sibi mens depingit anxia. 

(3.) With medial and final rhyme : 

Gaude felix Agrippina sanctaque Colonia, 
Sanctitatis tuae bina gerens testimonia. 

(4.) With cristate and final rhyme : 

Fide, voto, corde toto adhaeserunt Domino : 
Et invicti sunt addicti atroci martyrio. 

2. Various combinations of dimeter and dimeter catalectic. 

(1.) Hexacole. 

a. Terminal rhyme : 

Hie precursor et Propheta, 
Immo Prophetarum meta, 

Legi ponens terminum : 
Mire ccepit per applausum 
Ventre matris clausus clausum 

Revelando Dominum. 

/3. Medial rhyme : 

Felix Anna, ex te manna 
Mundo datur, quo pascatur 

In deserto populus. 
Hoc dulcore, hoc sapore 
Sustentatur, procreatur, 

Ex manna vermiculus. 



APPENDIX, 263 



y. Inverted : 



Hortum Regis glorise 
Celebris memorise 

Es ingressa, Dorothea. 
Bene tecum agitur ; 
Jesus tecum loquitur ; 

Veni, veni, sponsa mea. 



(2.) Octacole. 

a. Three rhymes : 



Vox clarescat, mens purge tur, 
Homo totus emuletur, 
Dulci voce conformetur 

Pura conscientia : 
Patri, Proli, jubilemus : 
Pneuma sanctum praedicemus : 
Unam laudem tribus demus 

Quos unit essentia. 



0. Two rhymes : 



Mitis Agnus immolatur : 
Pro captivo liber datur : 
Stola Verbi purpuratur 

In Crucis altario : 
Paradisus reseratur : 
Nato stola prima datur : 
Annulatus calcitratur 

In Patris convivio. 



(3.) Decacole. 

a. With three rhymes : 



Bona pastor, panis vere, 
Jesu, nostri miserere : 
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere, 
Tu nos bona fac videre 

In terra viventium. 
Tu qui cuncta scis et vales, 
Qui nos pascis hie mortales, 
Tuos ibi commensales 
Cohaeredes et sodales 

Fac sanctorum civium. 



&. With two rhymes 



Christi tractus in odore, 
Christi languens in amore, 
Vires sumens ex languore, 
Corde, votis, factis, ore, 

Quem amabat coluit. 
Hie nee minis nee timore 
Mortis fractus, ncc labore, 
Idolorum ab errore, 
Multo quidem cum sudore, 

Gentem suam eruit. 



264 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



These metres most frequently occur in sequences; and are there frequently 
varied, as in other ways, so more especially by the insertion of two Iambic 
trimeter brachycatalectic lines ; thus : 

Servi crucis crucem laudent 
Per quam crucem sibi gaudent 

Vitae dari munera : 
Dicant omnes et dicant singuli, 
Ave, salus totius sseculi, 

Arbor salutifera. 

It is also to be observed that, in almost all examples of these metres, the 
rhymes which seem single are, at least assonantly, double, — as we observed above 
regarding Iambics. 

3. Various combinations of Trochaic dimeter catalectic. 
(1.) Rhymes consequent : 

Ergo pro justitia. 
Coronatur gloria : 
Et lsetandum potius : 
Sed tamen non possumus. 

(2.) Rhymes alternate : 

Elementa vicibus 
Qualitates variant, 
Dum nunc pigra nivibus 
Nunc caloiem induant. 

(3.) Hexacoles : 

a. Novi partus gaudium 

Sonet vox fidelium, 
Quo lumen de lumine, 
Prodiens de Virgine, 
Purgat Adse vitium 
Veteri caligine. 

#. Mane prima Sabbati 

Surgens Filius Dei, 

Nostra spes et gloria, 
Victo rege sceleris, 
Rediit ab inferis 

Summa. cum victoria. 



(4.) Heptacoles 



(8. 



Mundi renovatio 
Nova parit gaudia : 
Resurgente Domino 
Conresurgunt omnia : 
Elementa serviunt, 
Et auctoris sentiunt 
Quanta sint solemnia. 

Tempore sub gratiae, 
Nondum plena facie, 
Roma fide claruit : 
Sed errori patuit 
Ab imperatoribus, 
Et horum erroribus 
Profanata languit. 



APPENDIX. 265 

4. Various combinations of Trochaic dimeter catalectic, and Trochaic 
dimeter br achy catalectic. 

(1.) The following is the most usual and most beautiful of these : 

Coenam cum discipulis, Christe, celebrasti : 
Et mortem Apostolis palam munciasti : 
Et auctorem sceleris Judam demonstrasti : 
Et egressus protiuus hortulum intrasti. 

In narrative poems the medial rhyme is generally dropped : 

Crucem ferre Simoni sciens nil prodesse, 
De vi votum efficit, velle de necesse : 
Pressum palam cruciant cruces clam impressae, 
Palam et clam studuit crucis cultor esse. 

The pause at the end of the seventh foot is almost always rigorously observed ; 
the violation of the rule produces a very inharmonious effect ; as — 

HorEi matutinjl Ma | rise nunciatur 
Quod Jesus a Judseis falsis captivatur. 

A very extraordinary variety of this measure is that which employs a hexameter 
as the fourth line : 

Procuret Omnipotens sibi successorem, 
Saltern sibi similem, nollem meliorem, 
Qui tollat Bretonibus antiquum dolorem, 
Et sibi restituat propriam propriaeque decorem. 

(2.) Stanzas such as the following occur in almost innumerable varieties : 

Dies est laetitise 

In ortu regali, . 
Nam processit hodie 

Ventre virginali 
Puer admirabilis, 
Totus delectabilis 

In divinitate, 

Qui inestimabilis 

Est et ineffabilis 

In humanitate. 

To attempt to particularise these would be utterly beyond our present limits. 

5. Trochaic dimeter. 
(1.) Couplets: (2.) Triplets: 

Nocte quadam via fessus, Dies ires, dies ilia 

Torum premens somno pressus Solvet sseclurn in favilla, 

In obscuro noctis densse Teste David cum Sibylla. 
Templum vidi Patavense. 

6. Trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic. 

(1 .) Without rhyme : (2.) With rhyme : 

Ave, maris Stella, Ave Katherina, 

Dei Mater alma, Martyr et Rcgina, 

Atque semper Virgo, Virgo Deo digna, 

Felix coeli porta. Mitis et benigua. 



266 



ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY. 



VII. Dactylics. 
1. J 



Cur mundus militat sub vana gloria 
Cujus prosperitas est transitoria? 
Tarn cito labitur ejus potentia 
Quam vasa figuli, quae sunt fragilia. 

It may be doubted, in many cases, whether such lines were intended to be read 
as tetrameter Dactylics, or trimeter Iambics : 



Nam ipsi praesules, virtute tepidi, 
Saluti gentium custodes positi, 
Cum docere debent, fiunt discipuli, 
Cum pastores essent, sunt mercenarii. 

| -J__ ] J 

Tuba Domini, Paule, maxima, 
De coelestibus dans tonitrua, 
Hostes dissipans, cives aggrega. 



Rorant nubes misericordia, 
Pluunt nubes, stillat justitia. 



4. Tetrameter catalectic. 



Germine nobilis Eulalia, 
Mortis et indole nobilior, 
Emeritam sacra Virgo suam 
Ossibus ornat, amore colit. 



VHI. Anapaests. 



1. Tetrameter catalectic. 

(1.) Without rhyme : 

Deus, ignee fons animarum, 
Duo qui socians elementa, 
Vivum simul ac moribundum 
Hominem, Pater, effigiasti. 

2. Irregular : 



(2.) With rhyme : 

Quo more vulgaris urtica 
Jacet haec quoque regia spica 
Ut bulla defluxit aquosa 
Subsedit, ut vespere rosa. 



Adeste fideles, 

Laeti, triumphantes, 
Venite, venite, in Bethlehem. 

Natum videte 

Regem Angelorum. 
Venite adoremus, venite adoremus, 

Venite adoremus Dominum. 



The above may suffice as a very meagre sketch of the principal varieties of 
mediaeval rhythm : a complete list would far exceed the space to which the limits 
of an Encyclopaedia necessarily confine us. 



LATIN PROSE WRITERS. 



CICERO. 



ROMAN PHILOSOPHY AND ORATORY, 

BY 

JOHN HENBY NEWMAN, B.D. 

FORMERLY FELLOW OF OEIEL COLLEGE OXFORD. 




MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



from u. c. 647 to 711 ; a. c. 107 to 43. 

We now turn to consider the political character, oratorical talents, 
and philosophical writings of one who has already come before us 
in our poetical division. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum, the native place of 
Marius, 1 in the year of Rome 647, (a.c. 107,) the same year which 
gave birth to the Great Pompey. His family was ancient and of 
Equestrian rank, but had never taken part in the public affairs of 
Rome, 2 though both his father and grandfather were persons of 
consideration in the part of Italy to which they belonged. 3 His 
father, being himself a man of cultivated mind, determined to give 
his two sons the advantage of a liberal education, and to fit them 
'or the prospect of those public employments which a feeble consti- 
tution incapacitated himself from undertaking. Marcus, the elder Birth and 
of the two, soon displayed indications of a superior intellect, and educatlon - 
we are told that his schoolfellows carried home such accounts of his 
talents, that their parents often visited the school for the sake of 
seeing a youth who gave such promise of future eminence. 4 One 
of his earliest masters was the poet Archias, whom he defended 
afterwards in his Consular year ; under his instructions he made 
such progress as to compose a poem, though yet a boy, on the 



1 De Legg. ii.'S. 

3 De Legg. ii. 1,3, 16 ; de Orat. ii. 66. 



2 Contra Rull. ii. 1. 
4 Plutarch, in Vita. 



272 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Early 
campaign. 
u. c. 664. 



fable of Glaucus, which had formed the subject of one of the 
tragedies of iEschylus. Soon after he assumed the manly gown, 
he was placed under the care of Scaevola the celebrated lawyer, 
whom he introduces so beautifully into several of his philosophical 
dialogues ; and in no long time he gained a thorough knowledge of 
the laws and political institutions of his country. 1 

This was about the time of the Social war ; and, according to the 
Roman custom, which made it a necessary part of education to 
learn the military art by personal service, Cicero took the oppor- 
tunity of serving a campaign under the Consul Pompeius Strabo, 
father of Pompey the Great. Returning to pursuits more congenial 
to his natural taste, he commenced the study of Philosophy under 
Philo the Academic, of whom we shall speak more particularly 
hereafter. 2 But his chief attention was reserved for Oratory, to 
which he applied himself with the assistance of Molo, the first 
rhetorician of the day ; while Diodotus the Stoic exercised him in 
the argumentative subtleties for which the disciples of Zeno were so 
celebrated. At the same time he declaimed daily in Greek and 
Latin with some young noblemen who were competitors in the same 
race of honours with himself. 




Temple of Peace. 

Of the two professions, 3 which, from the existence of external 
and internal disputes, are inseparable alike from all forms of 

1 Middleton's Life, vol. i. p. 13, 4to ; de Clar. Orat. 89. 

2 Ibid. 3 Pro Muraena, 14; de Orat. i. 9. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 273 

government, while that of arms, by its splendour and importance, cieero. 
secures the almost undivided admiration of a rising and uncivilised 
people, legal practice, on the other hand, becomes the path to 
honours in later and more civilised ages, from the oratorical 
accomplishments by which it is usually attended. The date of 
Cicero's birth fell precisely during that intermediate state of things, 
in which the exclusive glory of military exploits was prejudiced by 
the very opulence and luxury which they had been the means of 
procuring; he was the first Koman who found his way to the 
highest dignities of the State with no other recommendation than Choice of 
his powers of eloquence, and his merits as a civil magistrate. 1 pi ° essl0n - 

The first cause of importance he undertook was his defence of Defence of 
Roscius Amerinus ; in which he distinguished himself by his JJJJJJJJoa 
spirited opposition to Sylla, whose favourite Chrysogonus was Ms first 
prosecutor in the action. This obliging him, according to Plutarch, cause * 
to leave Rome on prudential motives, he employed his time in 

I travelling for two years under pretence of his health, which, he His travels, 
tells us, 2 was as yet unequal to the exertion of pleading. At Athens 
he met with T. Pomponius Atticus, whom he had formerly known 
at school, and there renewed with him a friendship which lasted 
through life, in spite of the change of interests and estrangements 
of affection so commonly attendant on turbuleut times. 3 Here too 
he attended the lectures of Antiochus, who, under the name of 
Academic, taught the dogmatic doctrines of Plato and the Stoics. 
Though Cicero evinced at first considerable dislike of his philoso- 
phical views, 4 he seems afterwards to have adopted the sentiments 

i of the Old Academy, which they much resembled ; and not till late 
in life to have relapsed into the sceptical tenets of his former 
instructor Philo. 5 After visiting the principal philosophers and 
rhetoricians of Asia, in his thirtieth year he returned to Rome, so Returns to 
strengthened and improved both in bodily and mental powers, that u# ™677. 
he soon eclipsed in speaking all his competitors for public favour. A - c - 77 - 
So popular a talent speedily gained him the suffrage of the Com- 
mons ; and, being sent to Sicily as QuEestor, at a time when the Quaestor of 
metropolis itself was visited with a scarcity of corn, he acquitted lC1 y * 
himself in that delicate situation with such address, as to supply the 
clamorous wants of the people without oppressing the province 
from which the provisions were raised. 6 Returning thence with 
greater honours than had ever been before decreed to a Roman 
Governor, he ingratiated himself still farther in the esteem of the 
Sicilians, by undertaking his celebrated prosecution of Verres ; Prosecution 

ol Verres. 

1 In Catil. iii. 6 ; in Pis. 3 ; pro Sylla, 30 ; pro Dom. 37 ; de Harusp. resp. 23 ; 
ad.Fam. xv. 4. 2 De Clar. Orat. 91. 

3 Middleton's Life, vol. i. p. 42, 4to. 4 Plutarch, in Vita. 

"Warburton, Div. Leg. lib. iii. sec. 3 ; and Vossius, de Nat. Logic, c. viii. 
sec. 22. o Pl0 Planc> 26; in Ver. v. 14. 

[r. l.] t 



274 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



^Edile. 



Praetor. 



who, though defended by the influence of the Metelli and the 
eloquence of Hortensius, was at length driven in despair into 
voluntary exile. 

Five years after his Quaastorship, Cicero was elected iEdile, a 
post of considerable expense from the exhibition of games con- 
nected with it. 1 In this magistracy he conducted himself with 
singular propriety ; 2 for, it being customary to court the people by 
a display of splendour in these official shows, he contrived to retain 
his popularity without submitting to the usual alternative of plun- 
dering the provinces or sacrificing his private fortune. The latter 
was at this time by no means ample ; but, with the good sense and 
taste which mark his character, he preserved in his domestic 
arrangements the dignity of a literary and public man, without any 
of the ostentation of magnificence which often distinguishes the 
candidate for popular applause. 3 

After the customary interval of two years, he was returned at 
the head of the list as Prsetor ; 4 and now made his first appearance 




Temple of JTorcuna Virilis. 

in the rostrum in support of the Mamilian law, which will be 
found in the volume of this Encyclopaedia containing the public 
history of Eome. About the same time he defended Cluentius. 



1 Pro Plane. 26 ; in Verr. v. 14. 
3 Pro Dom. 58. 



- De Offic. ii. 17 ; Middleton. 
4 In Pis. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 275 

At the expiration of his Prsetorship, he refused to accept a foreign Cicero. 
province, the usual reward of that magistracy ;* but, having the 
Consulate full in view, and relying on his interest with Caesar and 
Pompey, he allowed nothing to divert him from that career of 
glory for which he now believed himself to be destined. 

It may be doubted, indeed, whether any individual ever rose to 
power by more virtuous and truly honourable conduct ; the in- Different 
itegrity of his public life was only equalled by the correctness of his estimates 
private morals ; and it may at first sight excite our wonder, that byniscon- 
a course so splendidly begun should afterwards so little fulfil its JJJ5^ anes 
'early promise. We have, in our memoir of Caesar, contained in the posterity. 
volume above cited, traced his course from the period of his Consulate 
to his Prsetorship in Cilicia, and found each year diminish his influence 
ein public affairs, till it expired altogether with the death of Pompey. 
This surprise, however, arises in no small degree from measuring 
1 Cicero's political importance by his present reputation, and con- 
^ founding the authority he deservedly possesses as an author, with the 
opinions entertained of him by his contemporaries as a statesman. 
From the consequence usually attached to passing events, a poli- 
tician's celebrity is often at its zenith in his own generation ; while 
the author, who is in the highest repute with posterity, may perhaps 
have been little valued or courted in his own day. Virtue indeed so 
conspicuous as that of Cicero, studies so dignified, and oratorical 
powers so commanding, will always invest their possessor with a 
i large portion of reputation and authority; and this is nowhere 
more apparent than in the enthusiastic joy displayed on his return 
| from exile. But unless .other qualities be added, more peculiarly 
necessary for a statesman, they will hardly of themselves carry that 
weight of political consequence which some writers have attached 
to Cicero's public life, and which his own self-love led him to 
appropriate. 

The advice of the Oracle, 2 which had directed him to make his 
own genius, not the opinion of the people, his guide to immortality, 
(which in fact pointed at the above-mentioned distinction between 
the fame of a statesman and of an author,) at first made a deep 
impression on his mind ; and at the present day he owes his repu- 
tation principally to those pursuits which, as Plutarch tells us, 
exposed him to the ridicule and even to the contempt of his con- 
temporaries as "a pedant and a trifler." 3 But his love of popu- 
larity overcame his philosophy, and he commenced a career which 
gained him one triumph and ten thousand mortifications. 

It is not indeed to be doubted that in his political course he 
was considerably influenced by a sense of duty. To many it may 
even appear that a public life was best adapted for the display of 

1 Pro Muraena, 20. 2 Plutarch, in Vita. 

3 TpaiKos Kai crxo\a<TTin6s. Plutarch, in Vita. 

t 2 



276 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



His 

Consulate. 
v. c. 690. 
a. c. 63. 



Want of 
political 
firmness. 



his particular talents ; that, at the termination of the Mithridatic 
war, Cicero was in fact marked out as the very individual to 
adjust the pretensions of the rival parties in the Commonwealth, to 
withstand the encroachments of Pompey, and to baffle the arts of 
Caesar. And if the power of swaying and controlling the popular 
assemblies by his eloquence ; if the circumstances of his rank, 
Equestrian as far as family was concerned, yet almost Patrician 
from the splendour of his personal honours ; if the popularity 
derived from his accusation of Verres, and defence of Cornelius, and 
the favour of the Senate acquired by the brilliant services of his 
Consulate ; if the general respect of all parties which his learning 
and virtue commanded ; if these were sufficient qualifications for a 
mediator between contending factions, Cicero was indeed called 
upon by the voice of his country to that most arduous and honour- 
able post. And in his Consulate he had seemed sensible of the 
call: "Ita est a me Consulatus peractus," he declares in his speech 
against Piso, " ut nihil sine consilio Senatus, nihil non approbante 
populo Ptomano egerim; ut semper in Eostris Curiam, in Senatu 
Populum defenderim ; ut multitudinem cum Principibus, Equestrem 
ordinem cum Senatu conjunxerim. 1 

Yet, after that eventful period, we see him resigning his high 
station to Cato, who, with half his abilities, little foresight, and no 
address, 2 possessed that first requisite for a statesman, firmness. 
Cicero, on the contrary, was irresolute, timid, and inconsistent. 3 He 
talked indeed largely of preserving a middle course, 4 but he was 
continually vacillating from one to the other extreme ; always too 
confident or too dejected ; incorrigibly vain of success, yet meanly 
panegyrizing the government of an usurper. His foresight, sagacity, 
practical good sense, and singular tact, were lost for want of that 
strength of mind which points them steadily to one object. He was 
never decided, never (as has sometimes been observed) took an 
important step without afterwards repenting of it. Nor can we 
account for the firmness and resolution of his Consulate, unless we 
discriminate between the case of resisting and exposing a faction, and 
that of balancing contending interests. Vigour in repression 
differs widely from steadiness in meditation ; the latter requiring 
a coolness of judgment, which a direct attack upon a public foe 
is so far from implying, that it even inspires minds naturally timid 
with unusual ardour. 



1 [" I have, throughout my consulship, so acted, that I have done nothing without 
the advice of the Senate — nothing without the approval of the Roman people ; 
that I have ever defended the Senate in the rostrum, the people in the Senate 
house ; that I have ever associated the populace with the nobles, the equestrian 
order with the Senate." — Editor.'] 

2 Ad Atticum, i. 18., ii. 1. 

3 See Montesquieu, Grandeur des Roinains, ch. xii. 4 Ad Atticum, i. 19. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICEEO. 



277 




Cicero. 



Pompey the Great. 



His Consulate was succeeded by the return of Pompey from the 
east, and the establishment of the First Triumvirate ; which, 
disappointing his hopes of political greatness, induced him to 
resume his forensic and literary occupations. Prom these he was 
recalled, after an interval of four years, by the threatening measures 
of Clodius, who at length succeeded in driving him into exile. 
This event, which, considering the circumstances connected with 
it, was one of the most glorious of his life, filled him with the 
utmost distress and despondency. He wandered about Greece 
bewailing his miserable fortune, refusing the consolations which 
his friends attempted to administer, and shunning the public 
honours with which the Greek cities were eager to load him. 1 His 



First 

Triumvirate. 
u. c. 694. 
a. c. 60. 



His exile 
and return. 
v. c. 696. 
a. c. 58. 



1 Ad Atticum, lib. iii.; ad Fam. lib. xiv. ; pro Sext. 22; pro Dora. 36; Plutarcb, 
in Vita. It is curious to observe how he converts the alleviating circumstances of 
his case into exaggerations of his misfortune: he writes to Atticus : " Nam quod me 
tam saepe et tam vehementer objurgas, et animo inf.rmo esse dicis, quaeso ecquod 
tantum malum est quod in mea calamitate non sit? ecquis unqnam ex tam amplo 
statu, tam in bond cmisd, tantis facultatibus ingenii, consilii, gratiae, tantis prasidiis 
bonorum omnium, concidit ?" [" You frequently and earnestly reprove me, and 
call me weak-minded. But tell me, what aggravation of misery is there which 
belongs not to my calamity ? Has any man ever fallen from so high a position, 
in so good a cause, with such ample resources of ability, of judgment, of influence, 
with such powerful support of all good men ? " — Editor.} iii. 10. Other persons 
would have reckoned the justice of their cause, and the countenance of good men, 
alleviations of their distress ; and so, when others were concerned, he himself 
thought; pro Sext. 12. 



278 MARCUS TULLITJS CICERO. 

Cicero. return, which took place in the course of the following year, re- 
instated him in the high station he had filled at the termination of 
his Consulate, but the circumstances of the times did not allow him 
to retain it. We have elsewhere 1 described his vacillations between 
the several members of the Triumvirate ; his defence of Vatinius to 
please Caesar; and of his bitter political enemy Gabinius, to 
ingratiate himself with Pompey. His personal history in the mean- 
while furnishes little worth noticing, except his election into the 
college of Augurs, a dignity which had been a particular object of 

cSSa"* * ^ S arn bition. His appointment to the government of Cilicia, 
which took place about five years after his return from exile, was 
in consequence of Pompey's law, which obliged those Senators of 
Consular or Praetorian rank, who had never held any foreign 
command, to divide the vacant provinces among them. This office, 
which we have above seen him decline, he now accepted with 
feelings of extreme reluctance, dreading perhaps the military 
occupations which the movements of the Parthians in that quarter 
rendered necessary. Yet if we consider the state and splendour 
with which the Proconsuls were surrounded, and the opportunities 
afforded them for almost legalised plunder and extortion, we must 
confess that this insensibility to the common objects of human 
cupidity was the token of no ordinary mind. The singular dis- 
interestedness and integrity of his administration, as well as his 
success against the enemy, are adverted to in our memoir of 
Caesar. The latter he exaggerated from the desire universally 
felt of appearing to excel in those things for which nature has 
not adapted us. 

His return to Italy was followed by earnest endeavours to 
reconcile Pompey with Caesar, and by very spirited behaviour when 
Caesar required his presence in the Senate. On this occasion he 
felt the glow of self-approbation with which his political conduct 
seldom repaid him: "credo" he writes to Atticus, " credo hunc 
(Caesarem) me non amare ; at ego me amavi : quod mihi jam pridem 
usu non venit." 2 But this independent temper was but transient. 
At no period of his public life did he display such miserable 
vacillation as at the opening of the civil war. We find him first 
accepting a commission from the Eepublic ; 3 then courting Caesar ; 
next, on Pompey's sailing for Greece, resolving to follow him 
thither ; presently determining to stand neuter ; then bent on 
retiring to the Pompeians in Sicily ; and, when after all he had 
joined their camp in Greece, discovering such timidity and discon- 

• 

1 History of the Roman Empire, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan. 

2 [" I believe I have not his (Caesar's) approval ; but I have my own ; which, for 
a long time, I have not been used to enjoy." — Editor.] Ad Atticum, ix. 18. 

3 Ibid. vii. 11, ix. 6, 119, x. 8 and 9, &c. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 279 

tent, as to draw from Pompey the bitter reproof, " Cupio ad hostes Cicero. 
Cicero transeat, ut nos timeat." x 

On his return to Italy, after the battle of Pharsalia, he had the General 
mortification of learning that his brother and nephew were making JS battieoT 
their peace with Csesar, by throwing on himself the blame of their Pharsalia. 
opposition to the conqueror. And here we see one of those elevated 
points of character, which redeem the weaknesses of his political 
conduct ; for, hearing that Csesar had retorted on Quintus the 
charge which the latter had brought against himself, he wrote a 
pressing letter in his favour, declaring his brother's safety was not 
less precious to him than his own, and representing him not as the 
leader, but as the companion of his voyage. 2 

Now too the state of his private affairs reduced him to great Private 
perplexity ; the sum he had advanced to Pompey had impoverished J^Jg™ 88 " 
him, and he was forced to stand indebted to Atticus for present 
assistance. 3 These difficulties led him to take a step which it has 
been customary to regard with great severity ; the divorce of his Divorces 
wife Terentia, though he was then in his sixty-second year, and ^marries 
his marriage with his rich ward Publilia, who was of an age dis- Publilia. 
proportionate to his own. 4 Yet, in reviewing this proceeding, we 
i must not adopt the modern standard of propriety, forgetful of a 
condition of society which reconciled actions even of moral turpitude 
with a reputation for honour and virtue. Terentia was a woman 
of a most imperious and violent temper, and (what is more to the 
purpose) had in no slight degree contributed to his present 
embarrassments by her extravagance in the management of his 
private affairs. 5 By her he had two children, a son, born the year His children, 
before his Consulate, and a daughter whose loss he was now fated 
to experience. To Tullia he was tenderly attached, not only from Grief at the 
the excellence of her disposition, but from her love of polite J J OS c°708 lllia ' 
literature ; and her death tore from him, as he so pathetically a. c. 46. 
laments to Sulpicius, the only comforts which the course of public 
events had left him. 6 At first he was inconsolable ; and, retiring 
to a little island near his estate at Antium, buried himself in the secedes from 
woods, to avoid the sight of man. 7 His distress was increased by pubhc llle " 
the unfeeling conduct of Publilia ; whom he soon divorced for Divorces 
testifying joy at the death of her step-daughter. On this occasion Pubmia - 
he wrote his Treatise on Consolation, with a view to alleviate his 
mental sufferings ; and, with the same object, he determined on 
dedicating a temple to his daughter as a memorial of her virtues 
and his affection. His friends were assiduous in their attentions ; 
and Caesar, who had treated him with extreme kindness on his 

1 [" I wish Cicero would go over to the enemy, that he may fear us " — Editor.] 
Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 3. 2 Ad Atticum, xi. 8. 0, 10 and 12. 

3 Ibid. xi. 13. 4 Ad Fam. iv. 14; Middlcton, vol. ii. p. 149, 

5 Ibid. 6 Ad Fam. iv. 6. ' Ad Atticum, xii. 15, &c. 



280 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



His private 
virtues. 



Apologies 
for his 

inconsistency 
in public life. 



return from Egypt, signified the respect he bore his character, by 
sending him a letter of condolence from Spain, 1 where the remains 
of the Pompeian party still engaged him. Caesar had shortly 
before given a still stronger proof of his favour, by replying to a 
work which Cicero had drawn up in praise of Cato : 2 but no 
attentions, however considerate, could soften Cicero's vexation at 
seeing the country he had formerly saved by his exertions, now 
subjected to the tyranny of one master. His speeches, indeed, for 
Marcellus and Ligarius, exhibit traces of inconsistency ; but for 
the most part he retired from public business, and gave himself 
up to the composition of those works, which, while they mitigated 
his political sorrows, have secured his literary celebrity. 

The murder of Caesar, which took place in the following year, 
once more brought him on the stage of public affairs ; but, as we 
intend our present paper to be an account of his private life and 
literary character, we reserve the sequel of his history, including 
his unworthy treatment of Brutus, his coalition with Octavius, his 
orations against Antonius, his proscription and death, for another 
department of our work. On the whole, antiquity may be challenged 
to produce an individual more virtuous, more perfectly amiable than 
Cicero. None interest more in their life, none excite more painful 
emotions in their death. Others, it is true, may be found of 
loftier and more heroic character, who awe and subdue the mind 
by the grandeur of their views, or the intensity of their exertions. 
But Cicero engages our affections by the integrity of his public 
conduct, the correctness of his private life, the generosity, 3 
placability, and kindness of his heart, the playfulness of his temper, 
the warmth of his domestic attachments. In this respect his 
letters are invaluable. " Here we may see the genuine man with- 
out disguise or affectation, especially in his letters to Atticus ; to 
whom he talked with the same frankness as to himself, opened the 
rise and progress of each thought ; and never entered into any 
affair without his particular advice." 4 

It must, however, be confessed that the publication of this corre- 
spondence has laid open the defects of his political character. Want 
of firmness has been repeatedly mentioned as his principal failing ; 
and insincerity is the natural attendant on a timid and irresolute 
mind. On the other hand it must not be forgotten that openness 
and candour are rare qualities in a statesman at all times, and while 
the duplicity of weakness is despised, the insincerity of a powerful, 
but crafty mind, though incomparably more odious, is too commonly 
regarded with feelings of indulgence. Cicero was deficient, not in 



1 Ad Atticum, xiii. 20. 2 Ibid. xii. 40 and 41. 

3 His want of jealousy towards his rivals was remarkable ; this was exemplified 
in his esteem for Hortensius, and still more so in his conduct towards Calvus. 
See Ad. Fam. xv. 21. 4 Middleton, vol. ii. p. 525, 4to. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 281 

honesty, but in moral courage ; his disposition too was conciliatory Cicero. 

and forgiving ; and much which has been referred to inconsistency, 

should be attributed to the generous temper which induced him to 

i remember the services rather than the neglect of Plancius, and to 

i relieve the exiled and indigent Yerres. 1 Much too may be traced 

to his professional habits as a pleader ; which led him to introduce 

1 the licence of the Forum into deliberative discussions, and (however 

• inexcusably) even into his correspondence with private friends. 

' Some writers, as Lyttleton, have considered it an aggravation of 

1 Cicero's inconsistencies, that he was so perfectly aware of what was 

I philosophically upright and correct. It might be sufficient to reply, 

that there is a wide difference between calmly deciding on an 

, abstract point, and acting on that decision in the hurry of real 

; life ; that Cicero in fact was apt to fancy (as all will fancy when 

assailed by interest or passion) that the circumstances of his case 

constituted it an exception to the broad principles of duty. As he 

eloquently expresses himself in his defence of Plancius : "Neque 

j enim inconstantis puto, sententiam, tanquam aliquod navigium, et 

I cursum, ex Beipublicse tempestate moderari. Ego vero hasc didici, 

i hsec vidi, haec scripta legi ; hsec de sapientissimis et clarissimis 

i viris, et in hac Eepublica, et in aliis civitatibus, monumenta nobis 

I literse prodiderunt ; non semper easdem sententias ab iisdem, sed 

quascunque Keipublicse status, inclinatio temporum, ratio concordise 

. postularet, esse defendendas." 2 

Thus he seems to consider it the duty of a mediator alternately 3 
■ to praise and blame both parties more than truth allows, if by these 
means it be possible either to flatter or to frighten them into 
an adoption of temperate measures. 

But the argument of the objectors proceeds on an entire miscon- The 
< ception of the design and purpose with which the ancients prosecuted o f h J h e sophy 
philosophical studies. The motives and principles of morals were ancients, 
not so seriously acknowledged as to lead to a practical application JJecuiative 
of them to the conduct of life. Even when they proposed them in than . 
the form of precept, they still regarded the perfectly virtuous man 
as the creature of their imagination rather than a model for imitation 
— a character whom it was a mental recreation rather than a duty 

1 Pro Plane; Middleton, vol. i. p. 108. 

2 C. 39. [" Nor do I regard it as any mark of inconsistency to regulate my opinions 
and my course, like a vessel, by the condition of the political weather. All that 
I have learned, -witnessed, and read — all that has been recorded of the wisest and 
most illustrious men, both in our state and in other political communities, has 
taught me that the same man is not always to defend the same opinions, but 
rather those which the position of the state, the bias of the times, and the 
interests of peace may require." — Editor.'] 

3 Ad Fam. vi. 6, vii. 3. '\8ia avvzf3ov\evev 6 Kitcepwv, iroXXa jx\v Kaiffapi 
ypdcpuv, iroWa d'avrov Hofiirrjiov 8e6fj,ei>os, irpavvuiv tKartpov Ka\ TTapa.fj.v9ovpi.zvos. 
— Plutarch, in vita Cic. See also in Vita Pomp. 



282 MAECUS TULLIUS CICEEO. 

Cicero. to contemplate ; and if an individual here or there, as Scipio or 

Cato, attempted to conform his life to his philosophical conceptions 
of virtue, he was sure to be ridiculed for singularity and 
affectation. 

Even among the Athenians, by whom philosophy was, in many 
cases, cultivated to the exclusion of every active profession, intel- 
lectual amusement, not the discovery of Truth, was the principal 
object of their discussions. That we must thus account for the 
ensnaring questions and sophistical reasonings of which their 
disputations consisted, has been noticed in our article on Logic ; l 
and it was their extension of this system to the case of morals, 
which brought upon their Sophists the irony of Socrates, and the 
sterner rebuke of Aristotle. But if this took place in a state of 
society in which the love ^of speculation pervaded all ranks, much 
more was it to be expected among the "Romans, who, busied as 
they were in political enterprises, and deficient in philosophical acute- 
ness, had neither time nor inclination for abstruse investigations ; 
and who considered philosophy simply as one of the many fashions 
introduced from Greece, " a sort of table furniture," as Warburton 
well expresses it, a mere refinement in the arts of social enjoyment. 2 
This character it bore both among friends and enemies. Hence 
the popularity which attended the three Athenian philosophers, 
who had come to Rome on an embassy from their native city ; and 
hence the inflexible determination with which Cato procured their 
dismissal, through fear, as Plutarch tells us, 3 lest their arts of 
disputation should corrupt the Eoman youth. And when at 
length, by the authority of Scipio, 4 the literary treasures of Sylla, 
and the patronage of Lucullus, philosophical studies had gradually 
received the countenance of the higher classes of their countrymen, 
we still find them, in consistency with the principle above laid 
down, determined in the adoption of this or that system, not so 
much by the harmony of its parts, or by the plausibility of its 
reasonings, as by its suitableness to the profession and political 
introduction station to which they respectively belonged. Thus because the 
philosophy Stoics were more minute than other sects in inculcating the moral 
to Rome. anc i SO cial duties, we find the Jurisconsulti professing themselves 
followers of Zeno ; 5 the orators, on the contrary, adopted the 
disputatious system of the later Academics ; 6 while Epicurus was 
the master of the idle and the wealthy. Hence, too, they confined 
the profession of philosophical science to Greek teachers; considering 
them the sole proprietors, as it were, of a foreign and expensive 

1 In the Philosophical division of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. 

2 Lactantius, Inst. iii. 16. 

3 Plutarch, in Vita Caton. See also de Invent, i. 36. 

Paterculus, i. 12, &c. Plutarch, in Vita Lucull. et Syll. 

5 Gravin. Origin. Juriscivil. lih. i. c. 44. 

6 Quinct. xii. 2. Auct. Dialog, de Orator. 31. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 283 

luxury, which the vanquished might have the trouble of furnishing, Cicero. 
but which the conquerors could well afford to purchase. 

Before the works of Cicero, no attempts worth considering had First 
been made for using the Latin tongue in philosophical subjects. oFthe lSL 
The natural stubbornness of the language conspired with E,oman language to 
haughtiness to prevent this application. 1 The Epicureans, indeed, phicai°~ 
had made the experiment, but their writings were even affectedly sub J ects - 
harsh and slovenly, 2 and we find Cicero himself, in spite of his 
inexhaustible flow of rich and expressive diction, making continual 
apologies for his learned occupations, and extolling philosophy as 
the parent of every thing great, virtuous and amiable. 3 cicCToV 1 " 

Yet, with whatever discouragement his design was attended, he Pjjj 1 ^ " 
ultimately triumphed over the pride of an unlettered people, and writings. 
the difficulties of a defective language. He was possessed of that 
first requisite for eminence, an enthusiastic attachment to the 
studies he was recommending. But occupied as he was with the 
duties of a statesman, mere love of literature would have availed 
little, if separated from the energy and range of intellect by which 
he was enabled to pursue a variety of objects at once, with equally 
persevering and indefatigable zeal. " He suffered no part of his 
leisure to be idle, or the least interval of it to be lost ■ but what 
other people gave to the public shows, to pleasures, to feasts, nay 
even to sleep and the ordinary refreshments of nature, he generally 
gave to his books, and the enlargement of his knowledge. On days 
of business, when he had any thing particular to compose, he had no 
other time for meditating, but when he was taking a few turns in his 
walks, where he used to dictate his thoughts to his scribes who 
attended him. We find many of his letters dated before daylight, 
some from the senate, others from his meals, and the crowd of his 
morning levee." 4 Thus he found time, without apparent incon- 
venience, for the business of the State, for the turmoil of the courts, 
and for philosophical studies. During his Consulate he delivered 
twelve orations in the Senate, Rostrum or Forum. His Treatises 
de Oratore and de Repablicd, the most finished perhaps of his com- 
positions, were written at a time when, to use his own words, "not 
a day passed without his taking part in forensic disputes." 5 And 
in the last year of his life, he composed at least eight of his philo- 
sophical works, besides the fourteen orations against Antony, which 
are known by the name of Philippics. Being thus ardent in the 
cause of Philosophy, he recommended it to the notice of his 

1 De Nat. Deor. i. 4 ; de Off. i. 1 ; de fin. Acad. Qusest., &e. 

2 Tusc. Qusest. i. 3 ; ii. 3 ; Acad. Qusest. i. 2 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 21 ; de 
Fin. i. 3, &c. ; de Clar. Orat. 35. 

3 Lucullus, 2 ; de Fin. i. 1 — 3 ; Tusc. Qusest. ii. 1, 2. iii. 2; v. 2; de Legsr. i. 
22—24; de Off. ii. 2 ; de Orat. 41, &c. 

4 Middleton's Life, vol. ii. p. 254. 5 Ad Quinct. fratr. iii. 3. 



284 MAHCUS TULLIUS CICEHO. 

Cicero. countrymen, not only for the honour which its introduction would 
reflect upon himself, (which itself was with him a motive of no 
inconsiderable influence,) but also with the fondness of one who 
esteemed it " the guide of life, the parent of virtue, the guardian 
in difficulty, and the tranquillizer in misfortune." l Nor were his 
mental endowments less adapted to the accomplishment of his 
object, than the spirit with which he engaged in the work. Gifted 
with versatility of talent, with acuteness, quickness of perception, 
skill in selection, art in arrangement, fertility of illustration, warmth 
of fancy, and extraordinary taste ; he at once seizes upon the most 
effective parts of his subject, places them in the most striking point 
of view, and arrays them in the liveliest and most inviting colours. 
His writings have the singular felicity of combining brilliancy of 
execution, with never-failing good sense. It must be allowed, that 
he is deficient in depth ; that he skims over rather than dives into 
the various departments of literature ; that he had too great com- 
mand of the plausible, to be a patient investigator or a sound 
reasoner. Yet if he has less originality of thought than others, if 
he does not grapple with his subject, if he is unequal to a regular 
and lengthened disquisition, if he is frequently inconsistent in his 
opinions, we must remember that mere soundness of thought, 
without talent for display, has few charms for those who have not 
yet imbibed a taste even for the outward form of knowledge, 2 that 
system nearly precludes variety, and depth almost implies obscurity. 
It was this very absence of scientific exactness, which constituted in 
Roman eyes a principal charm of Cicero's compositions. 3 

Nor must his profession as a pleader be forgotten in enumerating 
the circumstances which concurred to give his writings their peculiar 
character. For however his design of interesting his countrymen 
in Greek literature, however too his particular line of talent, may 
have led him to explain rather than to invent ; yet he expressly 
informs us it was principally with a view to his own improvement in 
Oratory that he devoted himself to philosophical studies. 4 This 
induced him to undertake successively the cause of the Stoic, the 
Epicurean, or the Platonist, as an exercise for his powers of argu- 
mentation ; while the wavering and unsettled state of mind, 
occasioned by such habits of disputation, led him in his private 
judgment to prefer the sceptical tenets of the New Academy. 

Here then, before examining Cicero's Philosophical writings, an 
opportunity is presented to us of redeeming the pledge we gave in 

1 Tusc. Qusest. v. 2. 2 De Off. i. 5. init. 

3 Johnson's observations on Addison's writings may be well applied to those of 
Cicero, who would have been eminently successful in short miscellaneous essays, 
like those of the Spectators, had the manners of the age allowed it. 

4 Orat. iii. 4 ; Tusc. Qusest. ii. 3 ; de Off. i. 1 . prcefat. Paradox. Quinct. de 
Instit. xii. 2. Lactantius, Inst. iii. 16. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 285 

our memoir of Plato, 1 by considering the system of doctrine which Cicero, 
the reformers (as they thought themselves) of the Academic school 
introduced about 300 years before the Christian era. 

We have already traced the history of the Old Academy, and The New 
spoken of the innovations on the system of Plato, silently intro- Academ y- 
duced by the austere Polemo. When Zeno, however, who was his 
pupil, advocated the same rigid tenets in a more open and dogmatic 
form, 2 the Academy at length took the alarm, and reaction ensued. 
Arcesilas, who had succeeded Polemo and Crates, determined on Arcesiias. 
reverting to the principles of the elder schools ; 3 but mistaking the 
profession of ignorance, which Socrates had used against the 
Sophists on physical questions, for an actual scepticism on points 
connected with morals, he fell into the opposite extreme, and 
declared, first, that nothing could be known, and therefore, 
secondly, nothing should be advanced. 4 

Whatever were his private sentiments, (for some authors affirm 
his esoteric doctrines to have been dogmatic, 5 ) he brought forward 
these sceptical tenets in so unguarded a form, that it required all 
his argumentative powers, which were confessedly great, to maintain 
them against the obvious objections which were pressed upon him 
from all quarters. On his death, therefore, as might have been 
anticipated, his school was deserted for those of Zeno and Epicurus ; 
and during the lives of Lacydes, Evander, and Hegesinus, who 
successively filled the Academic chair, being no longer recommended 

1 History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. 

2 Acad. Qusest. i. 10, &c. ; "Lucullus, 5 ; de Legg. i. 20 ; iii. 3, &c. 

3 Acad. Qusest. i. 4, 12, 13; Lucullus, 5 and 23; de Nat. Deor. i. 5 ; de 
Fin. ii. 1; de Orat. iii. 18. Augustin. contra Acad. ii. 6. Sext. Emp. adv. 
Mathern. lib. vii. 'O 'ApKeaiAaos toctovtou ctare'Sei rod KaiuoTOfxtas riva 5o£ai> 
ayairav nal {nroiroislcrQai rcou iraXai&v, &o~Te iyKa\e7v rods Tore o~o<pio~ras on 
Trpoarpi(erai 2a>KpaTei kcu UkaTcovi koI nap/Ati/idy kclI 'HpaKAdrco ra irepl rrjs 
iiroxys Zoyjxara nal rrjs aKaraArityias, ovSev Seo/xeWs, aWa olov hvarycay^v 

| nal fiefiaicoo-iv avrcov els 'dvdpas iv56£ovs Troiovjj.euos. — Plutarch, in Colot. 26. 
[" Arcesilas was so far from aiming at the reputation of originality while 
availing himself of the ancients, that the sophists of that time accused hiua of 
assenting implicitly to Socrates, and Plato, and Parmenides, and Heraclitus, in 

', respect of his opinions on the suspension [of assent] and the incomprehensibility 
[of things], as to perfect authorities, and referring to them for confirmation as to 

J persons of eminence." — Editor.] 

4 " Arcesilas negabat esse quidquam, quod sciri posset, ne illnd quidem ipsum 
i quod Socrates sibi reliquisset. Sic omnia latere censebat in occulto, neque esse 
' quicquam quod cerni, quod intelligi, posset ; quibus de causis nihil oportere neque 

profiteri neque affirmare quenquam, neque assertione approbare, &c." — Acad. 
j Qu&st. i. 12. [" Arcesilas affirmed that there was nothing that could be known, 

not even excepting what Socrates had reserved. He regarded all things as hid in 
I obscurity, and nothing as capable of being perceived or understood ; for which 
■ reasons he denied the right of any man to aver or affirm anything, or to confirm 
I anything by assertion, &c." — Editor.'} See also Lucullus, 9 and 18. They were 
. countenanced in these conclusions by Plato's doctrine of ideas. — Lucullus, 46. 

5 Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot. i. 33. Diogenes Lacrtius, lib. iv. in Arccsil. 



286 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

Cicero. by the novelty of its doctrines, 1 or the talents of its masters, it 
became of little consideration amid the wranglings of more popular 
Carneades. Philosophies. Carneades, 2 therefore, who succeeded Hegesinus, 
found it necessary to use more cautious and guarded language ; and, 
by explaining what was paradoxical, by reservations and exceptions, 
in short by all the arts which an acute and active genius could 
suggest, he contrived to establish its authority, without departing, 
as far as we have the means of judging, from the principle of 
universal scepticism which Arcesilas had so pertinaciously 
advocated. 3 

The New Academy, 4 then, taught with Plato, that all things in 
their own nature were fixed and determinate ; but that, through 
the constitution of the human mind, it was impossible for us to see 
them in their simple and eternal forms, to separate appearance 
from reality, truth from falsehood. 5 Por the conception we form 
of any object is altogether derived from and depends on the sensa- 
tion, the impression, it produces on our own minds, (ndOos 
evepyeias, cpavraaia.) Keason does but deduce from premises ulti- 
mately supplied by sensation. Our only communication, then, with 
actual existences being through the medium of our own impressions, 
Modified we have no means of ascertaining the correspondence of the things 
the P New m ° f themselves with the ideas we entertain of them ; and therefore can 
Academy. in no case be certain of the fidelity of our senses. Of their fallibility, 
however, we may easily assure ourselves ; for in cases in which 
they are detected contradicting each other, all cannot be correct 
reporters of the object with which they profess to acquaint us. 
Pood, which is the same as far as sight and touch are concerned, 
tastes differently to different individuals ; fire, which is the same to 
the eye, communicates a sensation of pain at one time, of pleasure 
at another ; the oar appears crooked in the water, while the touch 
assures us it is as straight as before it was immersed. 6 Again, in 
dreams, in intoxication, in madness, impressions are made upon the 
mind, vivid enough to incite to reflection and action, yet utterly at 
variance with those produced by the same objects when we are 
awake, or sober, or in possession of our reason. 7 

It appears then that we cannot prove that our senses are ever 

1 Lucullus, 6. 2 Augustin. adv. Acad. iii. 17. 

3 Lucullus, 18, 24. Augustin. in Acad. iii. 39. 

4 See Sext. Empir. adv. Mathem. lib. vii. 

5 Acad. Quast. i. 13; Lucullus, 23, 38 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 5 ; Orat. 71. 

6 " Tu autem te negas infracto remo neque columba collo commoveri. Pri- 
mum cur? nam et in remo sentio non esse id quod videatur, et in columba plures 
videri colores, nee esse plus uno, &c." — Lucullus, 25. [" You say tbat you are 
uninfluenced by tbe instances of the broken oar and the pigeon's neck. First, 
let me ask you why? for, in the case of the oar, I perceive that what appears is 
not ; and, in the pigeon, that many colours are apparent, when tbere is but one, 
Sc^'—EditorA ' Lucullus, 16—18 ; 26—28. 



MAKCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 287 

faithful ; but we do know they often produce erroneous im- Cicero. 
pressions. Here then is room for endless doubt ; for why may they 
not deceive us in cases in which we cannot detect the deception ? 
It is certain they often act irregularly ; is there any consistency at 
all in their operations, any law to which these varieties may be 
referred ? 

It is undeniable that an object often varies in the impression 
which it makes upon the mind, while, on the other hand, the same 
impression may arise from different objects. What limit is to be 
assigned to this disorder ? is there any sensation strong enough to 
assure us of the presence of the object which it seems to intimate, 
any such as to preclude the possibility of deception ? If, when we 
look into a mirror, our minds are impressed with the appearance of 

- unreal trees, fields, and houses, how can we ascertain whether the 
scene we directly look upon has any more substantial existence than 

j the former ? l 

Prom these reasonings the Academics taught that nothing was 

, certain, nothing was to be known (KaraXrjTrTov). For the 

j Stoics themselves, their most determined opponents, defined the 
Karakr}7TTLKr} (pavraaia (or impression which involved knowledge, 2 ) to 

I be one that was capable of being produced by no object except 
that to which it really belonged. 3 

1 " Scriptum est : ita Academicis placere, esse rerum ejusmodi dissimilitudines 
ut alise probabiles videantur, aliae contra ; id autem non esse satis cur alia percipi 
posse dicas, alia non posse ; propterea quod multa falsa probabilia sint, nihil autem 

| falsi perceptum et cognitum possit esse. Itaque ait vehementer errare eos qui 
f dicant ab Acaderuia sensus eripi, a quibus nunquam dictum sit aut colorem aut 
[ saporem aut sonum nullum esse ; illud sit disputatum, non inesse in bis propriam, 
-j quae nusquam alibi esset, veri et certi notam." — Lucidlus, 32. [" It has been 
, written thus : the Academics hold that there is in things that dissimilarity, that 

some appear probable, others the contrary ; but that this is no sufficient reason 
] for saying that some may be comprehended, others not ; because many false 

impressions are probable, but no false impression can be the object of compre- 
j hension and knowledge. He affirms, therefore, that those are greatly mistaken 
j who say that the Academics take away the existence of the senses ; inasmuch 

as they have never denied that there are such things as colour, taste, and sound ; 

but they contend that there is not in these things a peculiar mark of reality and 

certainty, not existing elsewhere." — Editor.'] See also 13, 24, 31 ; de Nat. 

Deor. i. 5. 

2 Ot yovv ^tooikoI KardXrjypiv tivcu (pacri KaraXrjTTTiKfj (payraaia crvyKaTdOeaw. 
I — Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. If y pot. iii .25. 

3 " Verum non posse comprehendi ex ilia Stoici Zenonis definitione arripuisse 
videbantur, qui ait id verum percipi posse, quod ita esset animo impressum ex eo 

!unde esset, ut esse non posset ex eo unde non esset. Quod brevius planiusque 
sic dicitur, his signis verum posse comprehendi, quse signa non potest habere quod 
i falsum est." — Augustin, contra Acad. 2, 5. [" They seemed to have caught their 
. doctrine of the incomprehensibility of truth from that definition of the Stoic Zeno, 
j who says tbat that may be perceived to be true which has been so impressed on 
j, the mind by the cause of its existence, as it could not have been by what was 
7 not the cause of its existence ; which is thus more briefly and simply expressed : 



288 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. Since then we cannot arrive at knowledge, we must suspend our 

decision, pronounce absolutely on nothing, nay, according to 
Arcesilas, never even form an opinion. 1 In the conduct of life, 
however, probability 2 must determine our choice of action ; and 
this admits of different degrees. The lowest kind is that which 
suggests itself on the first view of the case [cpavrao-ia TnOavrj) ; but 
in all important matters we must correct the evidence of our 
senses by considerations derived from the nature of the medium, 
the distance of the object, the disposition of the organ, the time, 
the manner, and other attendant circumstances. When the 
impression has been thus minutely considered, the (pavraala becomes 
7i epiudevfieuri, or approved on circumspection; and if during this 
examination no objection has arisen to weaken our belief, the 
highest degree of probability is attained, and the impression is 
pronounced complete (tmeplairaaros)? 

Sextus Empiricus illustrates this as follows : 4 If on entering a 
dark room we discern a coiled rope, our first impression may be 
that it is a serpent, — this is the (pavraala mOavrj. On a closer 
inspection, however, after walking round it (nepiobevaavTes) we 
observe it does not move, nor has it the proper colour, shape, or 
proportions ; and now we conclude it is not a serpent ; here we 
are determined in our belief by the nepuodevpLevrj pavraala. For 
an instance of the third and most accurate kind, viz., that with 
which no contrary impression interferes, we may refer to the 
conduct of Admetus on the return of Alcestis from the infernal 
regions. He believes he sees his wife ; everything confirms it ; but 
he cannot acquiesce in that opinion ; his mind is divided (rrepLaTrarui) 
from the impression he has of her death ; he asks aXX' r\v eOarrrov 
elo-opco bap.apT ep,rjv; (Ale. 1148.) Hercules resolves his difficulty, 

and his (pavraala becomes aTrtplarvaaros. 

The suspension then of assent (eVo^?)) which the Academics 
injoined, was, at least from the times of Carneades, 5 nearly a 
speculative doctrine ; 6 and herein lay the chief difference between 
them and the Pyrrhonists ; that the latter altogether denied the 
existence of the probable, while the former admitted there was 
sufficient to allow of action, provided we pronounced absolutely 
on nothing. 

that truth may he comprehended hy those marks which falsehood cannot possess." 
— Editor."] See also Sext. Empir. adv. Math. lih. vii. rrepl jxeTafiohris, and of 
Lucullus, 6 with 13. l Lucullus, 13, 21, 40. 

2 Tots (paLvoju-scpois ouv rrpoa^x^vres Kara rrjv fimruvqv rr\pr\cnv abo^daras 
fiiovp-ev, iird fir] Svud/xeOa avevepyrjroi rravrairacriv elvai. — Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. 
By-pot. 1, 11. 

3 Cicero terms these three impressions, u visio prohabilis ; quae ex circumspec- 
tione aliqua et accurata consideratione fiat ; quae non impediatur." — Lucullus, 11. 

4 Pyrrh. Hypot. i. 33. 5 Numen. apud Euseb. Pisep. Evang. xiv. 7. 
6 Lucullus, 31, 34 ; de Off. ii. 2. ; de Fin. v. 26. Quinct. xii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 289 

Little more can be said concerning the opinions of a sect whose Cicero, 
fundamental maxim was that nothing could be known, and nothing Causes 
should be taught. It lay midway between the other philosophies ; which m*de 
and in the altercations of the various schools it was at once attacked ^ademv a 
by all, 1 yet appealed to by each of the contending parties, if not to school of 
countenance its own sentiments, at least to condemn those advocated e nc ' 
by its opponents, 2 and thus to perform the office of an umpire. 3 
From this necessity then of being prepared on all sides for attack, 4 
it became as much a school of rhetoric as of philosophy, 5 and was 
celebrated among the ancients for the eloquence of its masters. 6 
Hence also its reputation was continually varying : for, requiring 
the aid of great abilities to maintain its exalted and arduous post, 
it alternately rose and fell in estimation, according to the talents of 
the individual who happened to fill the chair. 7 And hence the 
frequent alterations which took place in its philosophical tenets 5 

I which, depending rather on the arbitrary determinations of its 
present head, than on the tradition of settled maxims, were 

"accommodated to the views of ea*ch successive master, according as 
he hoped by sophistry or concession to overcome the repugnance 
which the mind ever will feel to the doctrines of universal 

I scepticism. 

And in these continual changes it is pleasing to observe, that 

-the interests of virtue and good order were uniformly promoted ; 

1 Lucullus, 22, et alibi ; Tusc. Quaest. ii. 2. 

2 See a striking passage from Cicero's Academics, preserved by Augustin, 
contra Acad. iii. 7, and Lucullus, 18. 

3 De Nat. Deor. passim ; de Div. ii. 72. " Quorum controversiam solebat 
jtanquam honorarius arbiter judicare Carneades." — Tusc. Qucest. v. 41. 

J 4 De Fin. ii. 1 ; de Orat. i. 18 ; Lucullus, 3; Tusc. Quaest. v. 11 ; Numen. 

apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. xiv. 6, &c. Lactantius, Inst. iii. 4. 
J 5 De Nat. Deor. i. 67 ; de Fat. 2 ; Dialog, de Orat. 31, 32. 

6 Lucullus, vi. 18 ; de Orat. ii. 38, iii. 18. Quint. Inst. xii. 2 ; Plutarch, in 
'ivita Caton. et Cic. Lactantius, Inst. Numen. apud Euseb. 
J 7 " Hffic in philosophia ratio contra omnia disserendi nullamque rem aperte 
j judicandi, profecta a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesila, confirmata a Carneade, usque 
; ,ad nostram viguit aetatem ; quam nunc propemodum orbam esse in ipsa Graecia 
'intelligo. Quod non Academiae vitio, sed tarditate kominum arbitror contigisse. 
1 Nam si singulas disciplinas percipere magnum est, quanto majus omnes ? quod 
ifacere iis necesse est, quibus propositum est, veii reperiendi causa, et contra omnes 

philosophies et pro omnibus dicere." — De Nat. Deor. i. 5. ["This principle in 
i philosophy, of arguing against all propositions, and openly determining nothing, 
• originated by Socrates, renewed by Arcesilas, and confirmed by Carneades, has 

been in force up to our own day ; but is now, I understand, even in Greece, 
1 almost destitute of an advocate. This, 1 apprehend, is not ascribable to any fault 

of the Academy, but to the dullness of individuals. For if it is a great task to 

acquire the philosophy of any one school, how much greater to attain those of 
iall? which, nevertheless, is necessary for those, who, for the investigation of 

truth, would be prepared to dispute for and against all the philosophical sects.*'' 

—Editor.] 

' [r. l.] u 



290 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



Philo and 
Antiochus. 



Mixed 
Philosophy 
of Cicero. 



interests to which the Academic doctrines were certainly hostile, if 
not necessarily fatal. Thus, although we find Carneades, in con- 
formity to the plan adopted by Arcesilas, 1 opposing the dogmatic 
principles of the Stoics concerning moral duty, 2 and studiously 
concealing his private views even from his friends ; 3 yet, by allowing 
that the suspense of judgment was not always a duty, that the 
wise man might sometimes believe though he could not know ; 4 he 
in some measure restored the authority of those great instincts of 
our nature which his predecessor appears to have discarded. 
Clitomachus pursued his steps by innovations in the same direction;"' 
Philo, who followed next, attempting to reconcile his tenets with 
those of the Platonic school, 6 has been accounted the founder of a 
fourth academy — while, to his successor Antiochus, who embraced 
the doctrines of the Porch, 7 and maintained the fidelity of the 
senses, it has been usual to assign the establishment of a fifth. 

We have already observed, that Cicero in early life inclined to 
the systems of Plato and Antiochus, which, at the time he composed 
the bulk of his writings, he had abandoned for that of Carneades 
and Philo. 8 Yet he was never so entirely a disciple of the New 
Academy, as to neglect the claims of morality and the laws. He 
is loud in his protestations, that truth is the great object of his 
search ; — " Ego enim, he says, si aut ostentatione aliqua adductus, 
aut studio certandi, ad hanc potissimum Philosophiam me applicavi: 
non modo stultitiam meam, sed etiam mores et naturam con- 
demnandam puto. . . . Itaque, nisi ineptum putarem in tali disputa- 
tione id facere quod, quum de Eepublica disceptatur, fieri interdum 
solet, jurarem per Jovem Deosque Penates, me et ardere studio 
Veri reperiendi, et ea sentire quse dicerem." 9 And, however inap- 



25. Austin, contra Acad. iii. 17. Numen. apud Euseb. 



1 De Nat. Deor. i. 
Prasp. Evang. xiv. 6. 

2 De Fin. ii. ] 3, v. 7 ; Lucullus, 42 ; Tusc. Quaest. v. 29. 

3 Lucullus, 45. 

4 Lucullus, xxi. 24 ; for an elevated moral precept of his, see de Fin. ii. 18. 

5 'Av^jp iv reus rpialv alp4aecri diarptyas, iu re rfj ' AKadTi/xaiicp Ka\ TlepnraTr)TiKJi 
Kal 'SruiKfj. — Diogenes Laertius, lib. iv. sub fin. [" A man versed in the three 
schools — the Academic, the Peripatetic, and the Stoic." — Editor.] 

6 " Philo, magnus vir, negat in libris duas Academias esse ; erroremque eorum 
qui ita putarunt coarguit." — Acad. Qucest. i. 4. ["Philo, a great man, denies in 
his writings that there are two Academies ; and refutes the error of those who 
have entertained that opinion." — Editor.'] 

7 De Fin. v. 5 ; Lucullus, xxii. 43. 

8 Acad. Quaest. i. 4 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 7. 

9 Lucullus, 20 ; see also de Nat. Deor. i. 7 ; de Fin. i. 5. [" For my own part, 
if I have applied myself especially to this philosophy, through any love of 
display or ambition of excelling, I not only hold my folly amenable to con- 
demnation, but my very character and nature. And, therefore, if I did not consider 
it absurd, in an argument like this, to do what is sometimes done in political 
discussions, I would swear by Jupiter and the gods Penates that I burn with 
an earnest desire of discovering the truth, and believe all that I say. 1 ' — Editor.] 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 291 

l propriate this boast may appear, he at least pursues the useful and Cicero. 

the magnificent in philosophy ; and uses his academic character as 
i a pretext rather for a judicious selection from each system, than 
v for an indiscriminate rejection of all. 1 Thus, in the capacity of a 
. statesman, he calls in the assistance of doctrines, which, as an orator, 
a he does not scruple to deride ; those of Zeno in particular, who 
a maintained the truth of the popular theology, and the divine origin 
)( of augury, and (as we noticed above) was more explicit than the 
,| other masters in his views of social duty. This difference of 
s sentiment between the magistrate and the pleader is strikingly 
£ illustrated in the opening of his treatise de Legibus ; where, after 
I deriving the principles of law from the nature of things, he is 
| obliged to beg quarter of the Academics, whose reasonings he feels 
\ could at once destroy the foundation on which his argument rested. 
"Ad Eespublicas firmandas, et ad stabiliendas vires, sanandos 
populos, omnis nostra pergit oratio. Quocirca vereor committere, 
ut non bene provisa et diligenter explorata principia ponantur : nee 
tamen ut omnibus probentur, (nam id fieri non potest) sed ut iis, 
I qui omnia recta atque honesta per se expetenda duxerunt, et aut 
■j nihil omnino in bonis numerandum nisi quod per se ip sum laud abile 
! esset, aut certe nullum habendum magnum bonum, nisi quod vere 
i laudari sua sponte posset." 2 And then apparently alluding to the 
arguments of Carneades against justice, which he had put into the 
I mouth of Philus in the third book of his de Republicd, he proceeds; 
" Perturbatricem autem harnm omnium rerum Academiam, hanc ab 
i Arcesila et Carneade recentem, exoremus, ut sileat. Nam, si invaserit 
d in haec, quae satis scite nobis instructa et composita videntur, 
edet ruinas. Quam quidem egoplacare cupio, submovere non audeo. 

And as, in questions connected with the interests of society, he 
thus uniformly advocates the tenets of the Porch, so in discussions 
of a physical character, we find him adopting the sublime and 

1 " Nobis autem nostra Academia magnam licentiam dat, ut, quodcunque maxime 
probabile occurrat, id nostro jure liceat defendere." — De Off iii. 4. [" Our Academy, 
however, grants us considerable licence, so that we may defend, by our own right, 
whatever occurs to us as most probable." — Editor.'] See also Tusc. Q,usest. iv. 4, 
v. 29 ; de Invent, ii. 3. 

2 [" All our argument is directed to the consolidation of states, the stability of 
their power, the sound condition of their population. Accordingly, I dread any 
failure in laying down well-considered and carefully-examined principles : not such, 
indeed, as shall meet universal approval (for that is impossible) ; but such as shall 
commend themselves to those who hold all upright and honourable objects to be 
in themselves deserving pursuit, and regard nothing as good which is not of itself 
praiseworthy, or, at least, nothing as eminently good which is not intrinsically an 
object of just commendation." — Editor.] 

3 De Legg. i. 13. [" But let us intreat the Academy, — this new Academy I 
mean, the school of Arcesilas and Carneades — the disturber of all these things, — 
to be silent. For should that school attack our arguments, skilfully as they seem 
to us to be framed and arranged, too much havoc would ensue. I would wish, 
then, to conciliate the Academy; remove it, I dare not." — Editor.] 

U2 



il 



" 3 



292 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. kindling sentiments of Pythagoras and Plato. Here, however, 
having no object of expediency in view to keep him within the 
bounds of consistency, he scruples not to introduce whatever is 
most beautiful in itself, or most adapted to his present purpose. 
At one time he describes the Deity as the all-pervading Soul of 
the world, the cause of life and motion. 1 At another He is the 
intelligent Preserver and Governor of every separate part. 2 At one 
time the soul of man is in its own nature necessarily eternal, without 
beginning or end of existence; 3 — at another it is represented as 
reunited on death to the one infinite Spirit ; 4 — at another it is 
to enter the assembly of the Gods, or to be driven into darkness, 
according to its moral conduct in this life ; 5 — at another the best 
and greatest of mankind are alone destined for immortality 6 — 
which is sometimes described as attended with, consciousness and 
the continuance of earthly friendships ; 7 sometimes, as but an 
immortality of name and glory ; 8 more frequently however these 
separate notions are confused together in the same passage. 9 
His Though the works of Aristotle were not given to the world till 

acquaintance Sylla's return from Greece, Cicero appears to have been a consider- 
ArLtotie. a °l e proficient in his philosophy, 10 and he has not overlooked the 
important aid it affords in those departments of science which are 
alike removed from abstract reasoning and fanciful theorising. To 
Aristotle he is indebted for most of the principles laid down in his 
rhetorical discussions, 11 while in his treatises on morals not a few of 
his remarks may be traced to the same acute philosopher. 12 
His The doctrines of the Garden alone, though some of his most 

of Epkums. intimate friends were of the Epicurean school, he regarded with 
aversion and contempt ; feeling no sort of interest in a system 
which cut at the very root of that activity of mind, industry, and 
patriotism for which he himself both in public and private was so 
honourably distinguished. 13 

Such then was the New Academy, and such the variation oi 



I Tusc. Quaest. i. 27 ; de Div. ii. 72 ; pro Milon. 31 ; de Legg. ii. 7. 
3 Fragm. de Rep. 3 ; Tusc. Quaest. i. 29 ; de Univ. 

3 Tusc. Qusest. i. passim ; de Senect. 21, 22 ; Sonin. Scip. 8. 

4 De Div. i. 32, 49 ; Fragm. de Consolat. 

5 Tusc. Quaest. i. 30 ; Som. Scip. 9; de Legg. ii. 11. 

6 De Amic. 4; de Off. iii. 28; pro Cluent. 61; de Legg. ii. 17; Tusc. 
Quaest. i. 11 ; pro Sext. 21 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 17. 

7 Cat. 23. 8 Pro Arch. II, 12 ; ad Fam. v. 21, vi. 21. 

9 Fro Arch. 11,12; ad Fam. v. 21, vi. 21. 

10 He seems to have fallen into some misconceptions of Aristotle's meaning. 
De Invent, i. 35, 36, ii. 14 ; see Quinct. Inst. v. 14. 

II De Invent, i. 7, ii. 51, et passim ; ad. Fam. i. 9 ; de Orat. ii. 36. 

12 De Off. i. 1 ; de Fin. iv. 5; ad Atticum. 

13 De Fin. ii. 21, iii. 1 ; de Legg. i. 13; de Orat. iii. 17; ad Fam. xiii. 1 ; 
pro Sext. 10. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



293 



opinion, which, in Cicero's judgment, was not inconsistent with the Cicero, 
profession of an Academic. And however his adoption of that 
philosophy may be in part referred to his oratorical habits, or the 
natural cast of mind, yet, considering the ambition which he felt 
to inspire his countrymen with a taste for literature and science, 1 
we must conclude with Warburton, 2 that, in acceding to the system 
of Philo, he was strongly influenced by the freedom of thought and 
reasoning which it allowed to his compositions ; the liberty of 
developing the principles and doctrines, the strong and weak parts 
of every Grecian school. Bearing then in mind his design of 
recommending the study of philosophy, it is interesting to observe 
the artifices of style and manner which, with this end, he adopted in 
his treatises ; and though to enter minutely into this subject would 
be foreign to our present purpose, it may be allowed us to make 
some general remarks on the character of works so eminently 
successful in accomplishing the object for which they were 
undertaken. 




Temple of Minerva. 

The most obvious peculiarity of Cicero's philosophical discuss- His form of 
ions is the form of dialogue in which most of them are conveyed. dml °s ue - 
Plato, indeed, and Xenophon had, before his time, been even more 
strictly dramatic in their compositions ; but they professed to be 
recording the sentiments of an individual, and the Socratic mode of 
argument could hardly be displayed in any other shape. Of that 



. 



1 De Nat. Deor. i. 4 
i. 1 : de Div. ii. 1, 2. 



Tusc. Quaest. 



1, v. 29; de Fin. i. 3, 4 ; de Off. 
2 Div. Lcgg. lib. iii. sec. 9. 



294 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



Advantages 
of it. 



Beauty of 
execution. 



interrogative and inductive conversation, however, Cicero affords 
but few specimens ; l the nature of his dialogue being as different 
from that of the two Athenians, as was his object in writing. His 
aim was to excite interest ; and he availed himself of this mode of 
composition for the life and variety, the ease, perspicuity, and 
vigour which it gave to his discussions. His dialogue is of two 
kinds ; according as his subject is, or is not, a controverted point, it 
assumes the shape of a continued treatise, or a free disputation ; 
in the latter case imparting clearness to what is obscure, in the 
former relief to what is clear. Thus his practical and systematic 
treatises on rhetoric and moral duty are either written in his own 
person, or merely divided between several speakers who are the 
organs of his own sentiments; while in questions of a more 
speculative cast, on the nature of the gods, on the human soul, on 
the greatest good, he uses his academic liberty, and brings forward 
the theories of contending schools under the character of their 
respective advocates. The advantages gained in both cases are 
evident. In controverted subjects he is not obliged to discover his 
own views, he can detail opposite arguments forcibly and lumi- 
nously, and he is allowed the use of those oratorical powers in 
which, after all, his great strength lay. In those subjects, on the 
other hand, which are uninteresting because they are familiar, he 
may pause or digress before the mind is weary and the attention 
begins to flag ; the reader is carried on by easy journies and short 
stages, and novelty in the speaker supplies the want of novelty in 
the matter. 

Nor does Cicero discover less skill in the execution of these 
dialogues, than address in their design. It were idle to enlarge 
upon the beauty, richness, and taste of compositions which have 
been the admiration of every age and country. In the dignity of 
his speakers, their high tone of mutual courtesy, the harmony of 
his groups, and the delicate relief of his contrasts, he is inimitable. 
The majesty and splendour of his introductions, which generally 
address themselves to the passions or the imagination, the eloquence 
with which both sides of a question are successively displayed, the 
clearness and terseness of his statements on abstract points, the 
grace of his illustrations, his exquisite allusions to the scene or 
time of the supposed conversation, his digressions in praise of 
philosophy or great men, his quotations from Grecian and Roman 
poetry, lastly, the melody and fulness of his style, unite to throw 
a charm round his writings peculiar to themselves. To the Roman; 
reader they especially recommended themselves by their continual 
and most artful references to the heroes of the old republic, who 
now appeared but exemplars, and (as it were) patrons of that : 



1 See Tusc. Quasst. and de Republ. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 295 

eternal philosophy, which he had before, perhaps, considered as cieero. 
the short-lived reveries of ingenious, but inactive men. Nor is 
there any confusion, harshness, or appearance of effort in the intro- 
duction of the various beauties we have been enumerating, which 
are blended together with so much skill and propriety, that it is 
sometimes difficult to point out the particular causes of the delight 
left upon the mind. 

In proceeding to enumerate Cicero's philosophical writings, 1 it 
may be necessary to premise that our intention is rather to sketch 
out the plan on which they are conducted, than to explain the 
doctrines which they recommend; for an account of which the 
reader is referred to our articles on the schools by which they were 
respectively entertained. 2 

The series of his rhetorical works has been preserved nearly Rhetorical 
complete, and consists of the Be Inventione, Be Oratore, Brutus works « 
I sive de claris Oratoribus, Orator sive de optimo genere Dicendi, 
Be partitione Oratorid, Topica de optimo genere Oratorum. The 
i last-mentioned, which is a fragment, is understood to have been 
the proem to his translation (now lost) of the speeches of Demos- 
j thenes and iEschines, Be Corona. These he translated with the 
' view of defending, by the example of the Greek orators, his own 
J style of eloquence, which, as we shall afterwards find, the critics of 
the day censured as too Asiatic in its character ; and hence the 
j preface, which still survives, is on the subject of the Attic style of 
oratory. This composition and his abstracts of his own orations 3 
are his only rhetorical works now extant, and probably our loss is 
not very great. The Treatise on Rhetoric, addressed to Herennius, Treatise on 
though edited with his works, and ascribed to him by several of Rhetonc - 
the ancients, is now generally attributed to Cornificius, or some 
other writer of the same period. 

These works consider the art of rhetoric in different points of 
view, and thus receive from each other mutual support and illustra- 
tion, while they prevent the tediousness which might else arise 
from sameness in the subject of discussion. Three are in the form 
of dialogue ; the rest are written in his own person. In all, except 
perhaps the Orator, he professes to have digested the principles of 
the Aristotelic and Isocratean schools into one finished system, 
selecting what was best in each, and, as occasion might offer, 
adding remarks and precepts of his own. 4 The subject is con- 
sidered in three distinct lights ; 5 with reference to the case, the 
speaker, and the speech. The case, as respects its nature, is 
definite or indefinite; with reference to the nearer, it is judicial, 

1 See Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin.; Olivet, in Cic. op. omn. ; Middlcton's Life. 

s History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, in this Encyclopaedia. 

3 Quinct. Inst. x. 7. 4 De Invent, ii. 2 et 3 ; ad Fam. i. 9. 

b Confer de part. Orat. with de Invent. 



296 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



De 

Invention e. 



Cicero. deliberative, or descriptive ; as regards the opponent, the division 
is fourfold — according as the fact, its nature, its quality, or its 
propriety is called in question. The art of the speaker is directed 
to five points ; the discovery of persuasives, (whether ethical, 
pathetical, or argumentative,) arrangement, diction, memory, 
delivery. And the speech itself consists of six parts ; introduc- 
tion, statement of the case, division of the subject, proof, refutation, 
and conclusion. 

His treatises Be Inventione and Topica, the first and nearly the 
last of his compositions, are both on the invention of arguments, 
which he regards, with Aristotle, as the very foundation of the art ; 
though he elsewhere confines the term eloquence, according to its 
derivation, to denote excellence of diction and delivery, to the 
exclusion of argumentative skill. 1 The former of these works was 
written at the age of twenty, and seems originally to have con- 
sisted of four books, of which but two remain. 2 In the first of 
these he considers rhetorical invention generally, supplies common- 
places for the six parts of an oration promiscuously, and gives a 
full analysis of the two forms of argument, syllogism and induc- 
tion. In the second book he applies these rules particularly to the 
tnree subject-matters of rhetoric, the deliberative, the judicial, and 
the descriptive, dwelling principally on the judicial, as affording 
the most ample field for discussion. This treatise seems nearly 
entirely compiled from the writings of Aristotle, Isocrates, and 
Hermagoras ; 3 and as such he alludes to it in the opening of his 
Be Oratore as deficient in the experience and judgment which 
nothing but time and practice can impart. Still it is an entertain- 
ing, nay useful, work ; remarkable, even among Cicero's writings, 
for its uniform good sense, and less familiar to the scholar, only 
because the greater part has been superseded by the compositions 

Topica. of his riper years. His Toxica, or treatise on common-places, has 
less extent and variety of plan, being little else than a compendium 
of Aristotle's work on the same subject. It was, as he informs us 
in its proem, drawn up from memory on his voyage from Italy to 
Greece, soon after Caesar's murder, and in compliance with the 
wishes of Trebatius, who had sometime before urged him to under- 
take the translation. 4 
Be Oratore. Cicero seems to have intended his De Oratore, Brutus, and 
Orator, to form one complete system. 5 Of these three noble works, 
the first lays down the principles and rules of the rhetorical art ; 
the second exemplifies them in the most eminent speakers of Greece 
and Eome ; and the third shadows out the features of that perfect 
orator, whose superhuman excellences should be the aim of our 



1 Orat. 19. 

3 De Invent, i. 5, 



2 Vossius, de Nat. Rhet. c. x 
6 ; de Clar. Orat. 76. 

5 De Div. ii. 1. 



Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin. 
4 AdFam. vii. 19. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 297 

ambition. The Be Oratore was written when the author was fifty- Cicero. 
two, two years after his return from exile; and is a dialogue 
between some of the most illustrious Romans of the preceding age 
on the subject of oratory. The principal speakers are the orators 
Crassus and Antonius, who are represented unfolding the principles 
of their art to Sulpicius and Cotta, young men just rising at the 
bar, In the first book, the conversation turns on the subject- 
matter of rhetoric, and the qualifications requisite for the perfect 
| orator. Here Crassus maintains the necessity of his being ac- 
quainted with the whole circle of the arts, while Antonius confines 
eloquence to the province of speaking well. The dispute, for the 
most part, seems verbal ; for Cicero himself, though he here sides 
with Crassus, yet, elsewhere, as we have above noticed, pronounces 
eloquence, strictly speaking, to consist in beauty of diction. 
Scaevola, the celebrated lawyer, takes part in this preliminary 
discussion ; but, in the ensuing meetings, makes way for Catulus 
and Caesar, the subject leading to such technical disquisitions as 
were hardly suitable to the dignity of the aged Augur. 1 The next 
morning Antonius enters upon the subject of invention, which 
Caesar completes by subjoining some remarks on the use of humour 
in oratory; and Antonius, relieving him, finishes the morning 
discussion with the principles of arrangement and memory. In the 
afternoon the rules for propriety and elegance of diction are 
explained by Crassus, who was celebrated in this department of the 
art ; and the work concludes with his treating the subject of 
delivery and action. Such is the plan of the Be Oratore, the 
most finished perhaps of Cicero's compositions. An air of grandeur 
and magnificence reigns throughout. The characters of the aged 
senators are finely conceived, and the whole company is invested 
with an almost religious majesty, from the allusions interspersed to 
the miserable destinies for which its members were reserved. 

His treatise Be claris Oratoribus, was written after an interval De dans 
of nine years, about the time of Cato's death, and is conveyed in 0raton 
a dialogue between Brutus, Atticus, and himself. He begins with 
Solon, and after briefly mentioning the orators of Greece, proceeds 
to those of his own country, so as to take in the whole period from 
the time of Junius Brutus down to himself. About the same time 
he wrote his Orator ; in which he directs his attention principally Orator. 
to diction and delivery, as in his Be Inventione and Topica he 
considers the matter of an oration. 2 This treatise is of a less 
practical nature than the rest. 3 It adopts the principles of Plato, 
and delineates the perfect orator according to the abstract concep- 
tions of the intellect, rather than the deductions of observation 
and experience. Hence he sets out with a definition of the perfectly 

1 Ad Atticum, iv. 16. - Orat. 16. 3 Oral. 14, 31. 



298 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



De 

partitione 
Oratorld. 



Moral and 

Physical 

writings. 



De 

Republicd. 



Recent 
discovery of 
additional 
fragments 
of his 
Treatises. 



eloquent man, whose characteristic it is to express himself with 
propriety on all subjects, whether humble, great, or of an inter- 
mediate character; 1 and here he has an opportunity of paying 
some indirect compliments to himself. With this work he was so 
well satisfied, that he does not scruple to declare, in a letter to a 
friend, that he was ready to risk his reputation for judgment in 
oratory on its merits. 2 

The treatise Be partitione Oratorid, or on the three parts of 
rhetoric, is a kind of catechism between Cicero and his son, drawn 
up for the use of the latter at the same time with the two preceding. 
It is the most systematic and perspicuous of his rhetorical works, 
but seems to be but the rough draught of what he originally 
intended. 3 

The connection which we have been able to preserve between the 
rhetorical writings of Cicero will be quite unattainable in his moral 
and physical treatises ; partly from the extent of the subject, partly 
from the losses occasioned by time, partly from the inconsistency 
which we have warned the reader to expect in his sentiments. In 
our enumeration, therefore, we shall observe no other order than 
that which the date of their composition furnishes. 

The earliest now extant is part of his treatise Be Legih's, in 
three books ; being a sequel to his work on politics. Both were 
written in imitation of Plato's treatises on the same subjects. 4 The 
latter of these {Be Republicd) was composed a year after the Be 
Oratore, 5 and seems to have vied with it in the majesty and interest 
of the dialogue. It consisted of a series of discussions in six books 
on the origin and principles of government, Scipio being the prin- 
cipal speaker ; but Lselius, Philus, Manilius, and other personages 
of like gravity taking part in the conversation. Till lately, but a 
fragment of the fifth book was understood to be in existence, in 
which Scipio, under the fiction of a dream, inculcates the doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul. But in the year 1822, Monsignor 
Mai, librarian of the Vatican, published considerable portions of 
the first and second books, from a palimpsest manuscript of St. 
Austin's Commentary on the Psalms. In the part now recovered, 
Scipio discourses on the different kinds of constitutions and then- 
respective advantages ; with a particular reference to that of Kome. 
In the third, the subject of justice was discussed by Lselius and 
Philus ; in the fourth, Scipio treated of morals and education ; 
while in the fifth and sixth, the duties of a magistrate were 
explained, and the best means of preventing changes and revolutions 
in the constitution itself. In the latter part of the treatise, allu- 
sion was made to the actual posture of affairs in Home, when the 



1 Orat. 21, 29. 

3 See Middleton, vol. ii. p. 147, 4to. 

b Ang. Mai, prsef. in Rewp 



2 Ad Fam. vi. 18. 
4 De Legg. i. 5. 
Middleton, vol. i. p. 486. 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 299 

conversation was supposed to have occurred, and the commotions Cicero, 
excited by the Gracchi. 

In his treatise Be Legibus, which was written two years later De Legibus. 
than the former, and shortly after the murder of Clodius, he repre- 
sents himself as explaining to his brother Quintus, and Atticus, in 
their walks through the woods of Arpinum, the nature and origin 
of the laws, and their actual state, both in other countries and in 
Eome. The first part only of the subject is contained in the books 
now extant ; the introduction to which we have had occasion to 
notice, when speaking of his stoical sentiments on questions con- 
nected with state policy, Law he pronounces to be the perfection 
of reason, the eternal mind, the divine energy, which, while it per- 
vades and unites in one the whole universe, associates gods and 
men by the more intimate resemblance of reason and virtue, and 
still more closely men with men, by the participation of common 
faculties, affections, and situations. He then proves, at length, 
that justice is not merely created by civil institutions, from the 
power of conscience, the imperfections of human law, the moral 
sense, and the disinterestedness of virtue. He next proceeds to 
unfold the principles, first, of religious law, under the heads of 
divine worship ; the observance of festivals and games ; the office 
of priests, augurs, and heralds ; the punishment of sacrilege and 
perjury ; the consecration of land, and the rights of sepulchre"; 
1 and, secondly, of civil law, which gives him an opportunity of 
noticing the respective duties of magistrate and citizens. In these 
i discussions, though professedly speaking of the abstract question, 
1 he does not hesitate to anticipate the subject of the lost books, by 
! frequent allusions to the history and customs of his own country. 
It may be added, that in no part of his writings do worse specimens 
! occur, than in this treatise, of that vanity which was notoriously his 
i weakness, which are rendered doubly odious by the affectation of 
i putting them into the mouth of his brother and Atticus. 1 

Here a period of eight years intervenes, during which he com- Academics 
posed little of importance besides his orations. He then published Quastl0 ' 
the Brutus and Orator; and the year after, his Academicce Quas- 
tiones, in the retirement from public business to which he was 
driven by the dictatorship of Caesar. This work had originally con- 
sisted of two dialogues, which he entitled Catulus and Lucullus, 
from the names of the respective speakers in each. These he now 
remodelled and enlarged into four books, dedicating them to Varro, 
whom he introduced as advocating, in the presence of Atticus, the 
tenets of Antiochus, while he himself defended those of Philo. Of 
this most valuable composition, only the second book (Lucullus) of 
the first edition, and part of the first of the second are now extant. 

1 Quinct. Inst. xi. 1. 



300 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. In the former of the two, Lucullus argues against, and Cicero for, 
the Academic sect, in the presence of Catulus and Hortensius ; in 
the latter, Varro pursues the history of philosophy from Socrates 
to Arcesilas, and Cicero continues it down to the time of Carneades. 
In the second edition, the style was corrected, the matter con- 
densed, and the whole polished with extraordinary care and 
diligence. 1 

DeFinihus. The same year he published his treatise Be Flnibus or the chief 
good, in five books, in which are explained the sentiments of the 
Epicureans, Stoics, and Peripatetics on the subject. This is the 
earliest of his works in which the dialogue is of the disputatious 
kind. It is opened with a defence of the Epicurean tenets, concern- 
ing pleasure, by Torquatus; to which Cicero replies at length. 
The scene then shifts from the Cuman villa to the library of young 
Lucullus, (his father being dead,) where the Stoic Cato expatiates 
on the sublimity of the system which maintains the existence of one 
only good, and is answered by Cicero in the character of a Peri- 
patetic. Lastly, Piso, in a conversation held at Athens, enters into 
an explanation of the doctrine of Aristotle, that happiness is the 
greatest good. The general style of his treatise is elegant and 
perspicuous ; and the last book in particular has great variety and 
splendour of diction. 

We have already, in our memoir of Caesar, observed that Cicero 
was about this time particularly courted by the heads of the dic- 
tator's party, of whom Hirtius and Dolabella went so far as to 
declaim daily at his house for the benefit of his instructions. 2 A 
visit of this nature to his Tusculan villa, soon after the publication 
of the De Finibus, gave rise to his work entitled TusculancB Quas- 
tiones, which professes to be the substance of five philosophical 
disputes between himself and friends, digested into as many books. 
He argues throughout on Academic principles, even with an affecta- 
tion of inconsistency ; sometimes making use of the Socratic 
dialogue, sometimes launching out into the diffuse expositions 
which characterise his other treatises. 3 He first disputes against 
the fear of death ; and in so doing he adopts the opinion of the 
Platonic school, as regards the nature of God and the soul. The 
succeeding discussions on enduring pain, on alleviating grief, on 
the other emotions of the mind, and on virtue, are conducted for 
the most part on Stoical principles. 4 This is a highly ornamental 
composition, and contains more quotations from the poets than any 
other of Cicero's treatises. 

We have already had occasion to remark upon the singular 
activity of his mind, which becomes more and more conspicuous as 
we approach the period of his death. During the ensuing year, 



Tusculance 
Qucestiones. 



1 Ad Atticum, xiii. 13, 16, 19. 
3 Tusc. Quaest. v. 4, 11. 



2 Ad Fam. ix. 16, 18. 
4 Ibid. iii. 10, v. 27. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



301 



which is the last of his life, in the midst of the confusion and Cicero, 
anxieties consequent on Caesar's death, he found time to write the 
Be Naturd Beorum, Be Bivinatione, Be Fato, Be Senectute, Be 
Amicitid, Be Officiis, and Faradoxa, besides the treatise on Rheto- 
rical Common Places above mentioned. 

Of these the first three were intended as a full exposition of the 
opposite opinions entertained on their respective subjects; the Be 
Fato, however, was not finished according to this plan. 1 His trea- 
tise Be Naturd Beorum, in three books, may be reckoned the most De Naturd 
magnificent of all his works, and shows that neither age nor disap- 
pointment had done injury to the richness and vigour of his mind. 
In the first book, Yelleius, the Epicurean, sets forth the physical 
tenets of his sect, and is answered by Cotta, who is of the Academic 
I school. In the second, Balbus,, the disciple of the Porch, gives an 
'account of his own system, and is, in turn, refuted by Cotta in the 
| third. The eloquent extravagance of the Epicurean, the solemn 
enthusiasm of the Stoic, and the brilliant raillery of the Academic, 
'are contrasted with extreme vivacity and humour. While the sub- 
limity of the subject itself imparts to the whole composition a 
I grander and more elevated character, and discovers in the author 




PaDtheoii. 



imaginative powers, which, celebrated as he justly is for playful- 
ness of fancy, might yet appear more the talent of the poet than 
the orator. 

1 De Nat. Deor. i. 6 ; de Div. i. 4 ; de Fat. 1. 



302 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 

De 

Divinatione. 



De Fato. 



De Seneotute 
et de 
Amicitid. 



De Officiis. 



Paradoxa 
Stoicorum. 



His treatise De Divinatione is conveyed in a discussion between 
his brother Quintus and himself, in two books. In the former, 
Quintus, after dividing Divination into the heads of natural and 
artificial, argues with the Stoics for its sacred nature, from the 
evidence of facts, the agreement of all nations, and the existence of 
gods. In the latter, Cicero questions its authority, with Carneades, 
from the uncertain nature of its rules, the absurdity and useless- 
ness of the art, and the possibility of accounting from natural 
causes for the phenomena on which it was founded. This is a 
curious work, from the numerous cases adduced from the histories 
of Greece and Rome, to illustrate the subject in dispute. 

His treatise De Fato is quite a fragment ; it purports to be the 
substance of a dissertation in which he explained to Hirtius (soon 
after Consul) the sentiments of Chrysippus, Diodorus, Epicurus, 
Carneades, and others, upon that abstruse subject. It is supposed 
to have consisted at least of two books, of which we have but the 
proem of the first, and a small portion of the second. 

In his beautiful compositions De Senectute and De Jmicitid, 
Cato the censor and Lselius are respectively introduced, delivering 
their sentiments on those subjects. The conclusion of the former, 
in which Cato discourses on the immortality of the soul, has been 
always celebrated ; and the opening of the latter, in which Pannius 
and Scsevola come to console Lselius on the death of Scipio, is as 
exquisite an instance of delicacy and taste as can be found in his 
works. In the latter he has borrowed largely from the eighth and 
ninth books of Aristotle's Ethics. 

His treatise De Officiis was finished about the time he wrote 
his second Philippic, a circumstance which illustrates the great 
versatility of his mental powers. Of a work so extensively cele- 
brated, it is enough to have mentioned the name. Here he lays 
aside the less authoritative form of dialogue, and, with the dignity 
of the Eoman consul, unfolds, in his own person, the principles of 
morals, according to the views of the older schools, particularly of 
the Stoics. It is written, in three books, with great perspicuity 
and elegance of style ; the first book treats of the konestum, the 
second of the utile, and the third adjusts the claims of the two, 
when they happen to interfere with each other. 

His Paradoxa Stoicorum might have been more suitably, perhaps, 
included in his rhetorical works, being six short declamations in 
support of the positions of Zeno ; in which that philosopher's sub- 
tleties are adapted to the comprehension of the vulgar, and the 
events of the times. The second, fourth, and sixth, are respectively 
directed against Antony, Clodius, and Crassus. They seem to have 
suffered from time. 1 The sixth is the most eloquent, but the argu- 
ment of the third is strikingly maintained. 



Sciopp. in Olivet. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 303 

Besides the works now enumerated, we have a considerable frag- Cicero, 
ment of his translation of Plato's Timceus, which he seems to have 
finished about this time. His remaining philosophical works, viz. : 
the Hortensius, which was a defence of philosophy ; De Gloria, De 
Consolatione, written upon Platonic principles on his daughter's 
death ; De Jure Civili, De Virtutibus, De Auguriis, Chorographia, 
translations of Plato's Protagoras, and Xenophon's (Economics, 
works on Natural History, Panegyric on Cato, and some miscel- 
I laneous writings, are, except a few fragments, entirely lost. 

His Epistles, about one thousand in all, are comprised in thirty- Episiies. 

six books, sixteen of which are addressed to Atticus, three to his 

brother Quintus, one to Brutus, and sixteen to his different friends ; 

and they form a history of his life from his fortieth year. Among 

those addressed to his friends, some occur from Brutus, Metellus, 

I Plancius, Cselius and others. Por the preservation of this most 

; valuable department of Cicero's writings, we are indebted to Tyro, 

the author's freedman, though we possess, at the present day, but 

a part of those originally published. As his correspondence with 

: his friends belongs to his character as a man and politician, rather 

than to his powers as an author, we have already noticed it in the 

first part of this memoir. 

His poetical and historical works have suffered a heavier fate. Poetical and 

The latter class, consisting of his commentary on his consulship, ^ f k ° s ncal 

I and his history of his own times, is altogether lost. Of the former, 

which consisted of the heroic poems Halcyone, Cimon, Marius, and 

his Consulate, the elegy of Tamelastes, translations of Homer and 

; Aratus, epigrams, Sec., nothing remains, except some fragments of 

I the Phcenomena and Diosemeia of Aratus. It may, however, be 

questioned whether literature has suffered much by these losses. 

|| We are far, indeed, from speaking contemptuously of the poetical 

i powers of one who possessed so much fancy, so much taste, and so 

i fine an ear. 1 But his poems were principally composed in his 

I youth ; and afterwards, when his powers were more mature, his 

occupations did not allow even his active mind the time necessary 

r for polishing a language still more rugged in metre than it was in 

,' prose. His contemporary history, on the other hand, can hardly 

have conveyed more explicit, and certainly would have contained 

i less faithful, information than his private correspondence; while, 

with all the penetration he assuredly possessed, it may be doubted 

if his diffuse and graceful style of thought and composition was 

J adapted for the depth of reflection and condensation of meaning, 

which are the chief excellences of historical composition. 

The orations which he is known to have composed amount in all options. 
■> to about eighty, of which fifty-nine either entire or in part are 
I 

1 See Plutarch, in Vita. 



304 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



General 
distribution. 



preserved. Of these some are deliberative, others judicial, others 
descriptive; some delivered from the rostrum, or in the senate; 
others in the forum, or before Caesar ; and, as might be anticipated 
from the character already given of his talents, he is much more 
successful in pleading or in panegyric than in debate or invective. 
In deliberative oratory, indeed, great part of the effect depends on 
the confidence placed in the speaker ; and, though Cicero takes 
considerable pains to interest the audience in his favour, yet his 
style is not simple and grave enough ; he is too ingenious, too 
declamatory, discovers too much personal feeling, to attain the 
highest degree of excellence in this department of the art. His 
invectives, again, however grand and imposing, yet, compared with 
his calmer and more familiar productions, have a forced and 
unnatural air. Splendid as is the eloquence of his Catilinarians 
and Philippics, it is often the language of abuse rather than of 
indignation ; and even his attack on Piso, the most brilliant and 
imaginative of its kind, becomes wearisome from want of ease and 
relief. His laudatory orations, on the other hand, are among his 
happiest efforts. Nothing can exceed the taste and beauty of those 
for the Manilian law, for Marcellus, for Ligurius, for Archias, and 
the ninth Philippic, which is principally in praise of Servius 
Sulpicius. But it is, in judicial eloquence, particularly on subjects 
of a lively cast, as in his speeches for Caelius and Muraena, and 
against Caecilius, that his talents are displayed to the best advan- 
tage. To both kinds his amiable and pleasant character of mind 
imparts inexpressible grace and delicacy ; historical allusions, 
philosophical sentiments, descriptions full of life and nature, and 
polite raillery, succeed each other in the most agreeable manner, 
without appearance of artifice or effort. Of this nature are his 
pictures of the confusion of the Catilinarian conspirators on 
detection j 1 of the death of Metellus ; 2 of Sulpicius undertaking 
the embassy to Antonius ; 3 the character he draws of Catiline ; 4 
and his fine sketch of old Appius, frowning on his degenerate 
descendant Clodia. 6 

These, however, are but incidental and occasional artifices to 
divert and refresh the mind, as his orations are generally laid out 
according to the plan proposed in rhetorical works ; the introduc- 
tion, containing the ethical proof; the body of the speech, the 
argument, and the peroration addressing itself to the passions of 
the judge. In opening his case, he commonly makes a profession 
of timidity and diffidence, with a view to conciliate the favour 
of his audience ; the eloquence, for instance, of Hortensius, is so 
powerful, 6 or so much prejudice has been excited against his client, 7 



1 InCatil. iii. 3. 2 Pro Cael. 10. 


3 Philipp. ix. 


4 Pro Csel. 3. 


b Ibid. b\ 


6 Pro Qui net. and pro Verr. 5. 


7 Pro Cluent. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 305 

or it is his first appearance in the rostrum, 1 or he is unused to Cicero, 
speak in an armed assembly, 2 or to plead in a private apartment. 3 
He proceeds to entreat the patience of his judges ; drops out some 
generous or popular sentiment, or contrives to excite prejudice 
against his opponent. He then states the circumstances of his 
case, and the intended plan of his oration ; and here he is particu- 
larly clear. But it is when he comes actually to prove his point, that 
his oratorical powers begin to have their full play. He accounts for 
every thing so naturally, makes trivial circumstances tell so happily, 
so adroitly converts apparent objections into confirmations of his 
argument, connects independent particulars with such ease and 
plausibility, that it becomes impossible to entertain a question on 
the truth of his statement. This is particularly observable in his 
defence of Cluentius, where prejudices, suspicions and difficulties 
are encountered with the most triumphant ingenuity ; in the ante- 
cedent probabilities of his Pro Milone ; 4 in his apology for Muraena's 
public, 5 and Caelius's private life, 6 and his disparagement of Yerres's 
military services in Sicily ; 7 it is observable in the address with 
which the Agrarian law of Hullus, 8 and the accusation of Rabirius, 9 
both popular measures, are represented to be hostile to public 
liberty ; with which Milo's impolitic unconcern is made an affecting 
topic; 10 and Cato's attack upon the crowd of clients which accom- 
panied the candidate for office, a tyrannical disregard for the 
feelings of the poor. 11 So great indeed is his talent, that (as we 
have before hinted) he even hurts a good cause by an excess of 
plausibility. 

But it is not enough to have barely proved his point ; he 
proceeds, either immediately, or towards the conclusion of his 
speech, to heighten the effect by exaggeration. 12 Here he goes (as 
it were) round and round his object; surveys it in every light; 
examines it in all its parts ; retires, and then advances ; turns and 
returns it ; compares and contrasts it ; illustrates, confirms, enforces 
his view of the question, till at last the hearer feels ashamed of 
doubting a position which seems built on a foundation so strictly 
argumentative. Of this nature is his justification of Eabirius in 
taking up arms against Saturninus ; 13 his account of the imprison- 
ment of the Eoman citizens by Yerres, and of the crucifixion of 
Gavius; 14 his comparison of Antonius with Tarquin; 15 and the 
contrast he draws of Yerres with Fabius, Scipio, and Marius. 16 

1 Pro Leg. Manil. 2 Pro Milon. 3 Pro Deiotar. 

4 Pro Milon. 8—10. 5 Pro Muraen. 4. <3 Pro CsbL 6. 

7 In Verr. v. 2. &c. 8 Contra Rull. ii. 9. 

9 Pro Rabir. 3. i0 Pro Milon. init. et alibi. 

11 Pro Muraen. 14. 12 De Orat. partit. c. viii. 16, 17. 

13 Pro Rabir. 5. M In Verr. v. 65, &c. and 64, &c 

15 Philipp. iii. 4. m In Verr. v. 10. 

[it. L.] X 



306 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

Cicero. And now, having established his case, he opens upon his oppo- 

nent a discharge of raillery, so delicate and good-natured, that it 
is impossible for the latter to maintain his ground against it. Or 
where the subject is too grave to admit this, he colours his exag- 
geration with all the bitterness of irony or vehemence of passion. 
Such are his frequent delineations of Gabinius, Piso, Clodius, and 
Antonius j 1 particularly his vivid and almost humorous contrast of 
the two consuls, who sanctioned his banishment, in his oration for 
Sextius. 2 Such the celebrated account (already alluded to) of the 
crucifixion of Gavius, which it is difficult to read, even at the 
present day, without having our feelings roused against the merci- 
less praetor. But the appeal to the gentler emotions of the soul is 
reserved (perhaps with somewhat of sameness) for the close of his 
oration ; as in his defence of Cluentius, Mursena, Caelius, Milo, 
Sylla, Flaccus, and Rabirius Postumus ; the most striking instances 
of which are the poetical burst of feeling with which he addresses 
his client Plancius, 3 and his picture of the desolate condition of the 
Vestal Ponteia, should her brother be condemned. 4 At other times, 
his peroration contains more heroic and elevated sentiments ; as in 
his invocation of the Alban groves and altars in the peroration of 
the Fro Mllo?ie, the panegyric on patriotism, and the love of glory 
in his defence of Sextius, and that on liberty at the close of the 
third and tenth Philippics. But we cannot describe his oratorical 
merits more accurately than by extracting his own delineation of a 
perfect orator : " Sic igitur dicet ille, quern expetimus, ut verset 
ssepe multis modis eandem et unam rem; et heereat in eadem, 
commoreturque sententia : seepe etiam ut extenuet aliquid, saepe ut 
irrideat : ut declinet a proposito deflectatque sententiam : ut 
proponat quid dicturus sit : ut, cum transegerit jam aliquid, 
definiat : ut se ipse revocet : ut, quod dixit, iteret : ut argumentum 

ratione concludat : ut dividat in partes : ut aliquid relin^ 

quat ac negligat : ut ante prsemuniat : ut in eo ipso, in quo repre- 
hendatur, culpam in adversarium conferat : . . . . ut hominum 
sermones moresque describat : ut muta qusedam loquentia inducat : 
ut ab eo, quod agitur, avertat animos; ut ssepe in hilaritatem 
risumve convertat : ut ante occupet quod videat opponi : ut 
comparet similitudines : ut utatur exemplis : . . . . ut liberius quod 
audeat : ut irascatur etiam : ut objurget aliquando : ut deprecetur, 
ut supplicet ; ut medeatur ; ut a proposito declinet aliquantulum : 
ut optet, ut execretur ; ut fiat iis, apud quos dicet, familiaris." 5 

1 Pro Redit. in Senat. ; pro Dom. ; pro Sext. Philipp. 

2 Pro Sext. 8—1 a. 3 Pro Plane. i Pro Fonteio. 

5 Orat. 40. [" Our model orator then will often turn one and the same sub- 
ject about in many ways ; dwell and linger on the same thought ; frequently 
extenuate circumstances, frequently deride them ; sometimes depart from his object, 
and direct his view another way ; propound what he means to speak ; define what 
he has effected ; recollect himself ; repeat what he has said ; conclude his address 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 307 

But by the invention of a style, which adapts itself with singular Cicero, 
felicity to every class of subjects, whether lofty or familiar, philo- character of 
sophical or forensic, Cicero answers even more exactly to his own s 8 y e * 
definition of a perfect orator, 1 than by his plausibility, pathos, and 
brilliancy. It is not, however, here intended to enter upon the 
consideration of a subject so ample and so familiar to all scholars 
as Cicero's oratorical diction, much less to take an extended view of 
it through the range of his philosophical writings, and familiar 
correspondence. Among many excellences, the greatest is its 
suitableness to the genius of the Latin language; though the 
difluseness thence necessarily resulting has exposed it, both in his 
own days and since his time, to the criticisms of those who have 
affected to condemn its Asiatic character, in comparison with the 
simplicity of Attic writers, and the strength of Demosthenes. 2 
Greek, however, is celebrated for copiousness in its vocabulary and Difference 
perspicuity in its phrases ; and the consequent facility of expressing Greek and 
the most novel or abstruse ideas with precision and elegance. J^ tin affes 
Hence the Attic style of eloquence was plain and simple, because 
simplicity and plainness were not incompatible with clearness, 
energy, and harmony. But it was a singular want of judgment, 
an ignorance of the very principles of composition, which induced 
Brutus, Calvus, Sallust, and others to imitate this terse and severe 
beauty in their own defective language, and even to pronounce the 
opposite kind of diction deficient in taste and purity. In Greek, 
indeed, the words fall, as it were, naturally, into a distinct and 
harmonious order ; and, from the exuberant richness of the mate- 
rials, less is left to the ingenuity of the artist. But the Latin 
language is comparatively weak, scanty, and unmusical; and 
requires considerable skill and management to render it expressive 
and graceful. Simplicity in Latin is scarcely separable from bald- 
ness ; and justly as Terence is celebrated for chaste and unadorned 
diction, yet, even he, compared with Attic writers, is flat and 
heavy. 3 Again, the perfection of strength is clearness united to 
brevity ; but to this combination Latin is utterly unequal. Prom 
the vagueness and uncertainty of meaning which characterises its 

with an argument ; distribute into parts ; leave and neglect something occasionally ; 
guard his case beforehand ; cast back upon his adversary the very charges brought 
against him ; describe the language and characters of men ; introduce inanimate 
objects speaking ; avert attention from the main point ; turn a matter into jest 
and amusement; anticipate an objection ; introduce similes ; employ examples; 
speak with boldness and freedom ; even with indignation ; sometimes with 
invective ; implore and entreat ; heal an offence ; occasionally decline a little from 
his object ; implore blessings ; denounce execrations ; — in a word, put himself on 
terms of familiarity with the people whom be addresses." — Editor.'] 

1 Orat. 29. 

2 Tusc. Quaest. i. 1 ; de clar. Orat. 82, &c. ; de opt. gen. Die. 

3 Quinct. x. 1. 

x 2 



308 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. separate words, to be perspicuous it must be full. What Livy, 

and much more Tacitus, have gained in energy, they have lost in 
perspicuity and elegance; the correspondence of Brutus with 
Cicero is forcible indeed, but harsh and abrupt. Latin, in short, is 
not a philosophical language, not a language in which a deep 
thinker is likely to express himself with purity or neatness. " Qui 
a Latinis exiget illam gratiam sermonis Attici," says Quinctilian, 
" det mihi in eloquendo eandem jucunditatem, et parem copiam. 
Quod si negatum est, sententias aptabimus iis vocibus quas habemus, 
nee rerum nimiam tenuitatem, ut non dicam pinguioribus, forti- 
oribus certe verbis miscebimus, ne virtus utraque pereat ipsa 
confusione. Nam quo minus adjuvat sermo, rerum inventione 
pugnandum est. Sensus sublimes variique eruantur. Permovendi 
omnes affectus erunt, oratio translationum nitore illuminanda. 
Non possumus esse tarn graciles ? simus fortiores. Subtilitate 
vincimur ? valeamus pondere. Proprietas penes illos est certior ? 
copia vincamus," ! This is the very plan on which Cicero has 
proceeded. He had to deal with a language barren and dissonant ; 
his good sense enabled him to perceive what could be done, and 
what it was in vain to attempt ; and happily his talents answered 
precisely to the purpose required. Terence and Lucretius had 
cultivated simplicity; Cotta, Brutus, and Calvus had attempted 
strength ; but Cicero rather made a language than a style ; yet not 
so much by the invention as by the combination of words. Some 
terms, indeed, his philosophical subjects obliged him to coin ; 2 but 
his great art lies in the application of existing materials, in con- 
verting the very disadvantages of the language into beauties, 3 in 
enriching it with circumlocutions and metaphors, in pruning it of 
harsh and uncouth expressions, in systematizing the structure of a 
sentence. 4 This is that "copia dicendi" which gained Cicero the high 

1 [" Let him -who demands from Latin writers that peculiar charm of the Attic 
style grant me the same sweetness of expression, and equal copiousness of language. 
If this, as it is, is denied us, then we must express ourselves in such words as we 
have, and not introduce confusion, hy endeavouring to discuss subtile arguments in 
language, which, not to call it too heavy, is yet too strong ; lest both excellences 
[perspicuity and elegance] perish by their very commixture. For the less our 
language will assist us, the more we must labour to effect by the invention of 
matter. Let us aim at extracting from our subject sentiments of sublimity and 
variety. Let us appeal to every feeling, and adorn our style with metaphorical 
embellishments. We cannot attain the elegance of the Greeks ; let us exceed 
them in vigour. Do they excel us in subtilty ? — let us surpass tbem in force. 
Are they superior in exactness ? — let us outstrip them in copiousness of detail." 
— Editor.] 2 De Fin. iii. 1 and 4 ; Lucull. 6. Plutarch, in Vita. 

3 This, which is analogous to his address in pleading, is nowhere more 
observable than in his rendering the recurrence of the same word, to which he is 
forced by the barrenness or vagueness of the language, an elegance. 

4 It is remarkable that some authors attempted to account for the invention 
of the Asiatic style, on the same principle we have here adduced to account for 
Cicero's adoption of it in Latin ; viz. that the Asiatics had a defective knowledge of 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



309 



testimony of Csesar to his inventive powers, 1 and which, we may Cicero. 
add, constitutes him the greatest master of composition the world 
has ever seen. If the comparison be not thought fanciful, he may 
be assimilated to a skilful landscape-gardener, who gives depth and 
richness to narrow and confined premises, by taste and variety in 
the disposition of his trees and walks. 

Such, then, are the principal characteristics of Cicero's oratory ; Roman 
on a review of which we may, with some reason, conclude that el °i uence - 
Roman eloquence stands scarcely less indebted to his compositions 
than Eoman philosophy. For, though in his Be claris Oratoribus 
he begins his review from the age of Junius Brutus, yet, soberly 
speaking, (and as he seems to allow in the opening of the Be 
Oratore,) we cannot assign an earlier date to the rise of eloquence 
among his countrymen, than that of the same Athenian embassy 
which introduced the study of philosophy. To aim, indeed, at per- 
suasion, by appeals to the reason or passions, is so natural, that no 
country, whether refined or barbarous, is without its orators. If, 
however, eloquence be the mere power of persuading, it is but a 
relative term, limited to time and place, connected with a particular 
audience, and leaving to posterity no test of its merits, but the 
report of those whom it has been successful in influencing. " Vulgus 
interdum," says Cicero, "non probandum oratorem probat, sed 
probat sine comparatione, ciim a mediocri aut etiam a malo delec- 
tatur ; eo est contentus : esse melius sentit : illud quod est, quale- 
cunque est, probat." 2 




Ilonian Uraiors. 

Greek, and devised phrases, &c., to make up for the imperfections of their scantv 
vocabulary. See Quinct. xii. 10. J De clar. Orat. 72. 

2 De clar. Orat. 52. ["Sometimes the multitude bestow their approval on an 



310 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Cicero. 



Orators 

before 

Cicero. 



Ciceronian 
age. 



Decline of 

Roman 

Oratory 

under the 

Imperial 

Government, 



The eloquence of Carneades and his associates made (to use a 
familiar term) a great sensation among the Roman orators, who 
soon split into two parties ; the one adhering to the rough un- 
polished manners of their forefathers, the other favouring the 
artificial graces which distinguished the Grecian style. In the 
former class were Cato and Laelius, 1 both men of cultivated minds, 
particularly Cato, whose opposition to Greek literature was founded 
solely on political considerations. But, as might be expected, the 
Athenian cause prevailed ; and Carbo and the two Gracchi, who are 
the principal orators of the next generation, are related to have been 
learned, majestic, and harmonious in the character of their speeches. 2 
These were succeeded by Antonius, Crassus, Cotta, Sulpicius, and 
Hortensius ; who, adopting greater liveliness and variety of man- 
ner, form a middle age in the history of Roman eloquence. But it 
was in that which immediately followed, that the art was adorned 
by an assemblage of orators, which even Greece will find it difficult 
to match. Of these Cyesar, Cicero, Curio, Brutus, Caelius, Calvus, 
and Callidius, are the most celebrated. The splendid talents, 
indeed, of Caesar were not more conspicuous in arms than in his 
oratory, which was noted for force and purity. 3 Caelius, who has 
come before us in the history of the times, excelled in natural 
quickness, loftiness of sentiment, and politeness in attack ; 4 Brutus 
in philosophical gravity, though he sometimes indulged himself in a 
warmer and bolder style. 5 Callidius was delicate and harmonious ; 
Curio bold and flowing ; Calvus, from studied opposition to Cicero's 
peculiarities, cold, cautious, and accurate. 6 Brutus and Calvus 
have been before noticed as the advocates of the dry sententious 
mode of speaking, which they dignified by the name of Attic ; a 
kind of eloquence which seems to have been popular from the com- 
parative facility with which it was attained. 

In the Ciceronian age the general character of the oratory was 
dignified and graceful. The popular nature of the government 
gave opportunities for effective appeals to the passions ; and, Greek 
literature being as yet a novelty, philosophical sentiments were 
introduced with corresponding success. The republican orators 
were long in their introductions, diffuse in their statements, ample 
in their divisions, frequent in their digressions, gradual and sedate 
in their perorations. 7 Under the emperors, however, the people 
were less consulted in state affairs; and the judges, instead of 
possessing an almost independent authority, being but delegates of 
the executive, from interested politicians became men of business ; 



orator who does not deserve \t, and are pleased with one of mean or no talent : 
they are sensible that something better exists ; but they are content, and approve 
what they have, such as it is." — Editor.'] 

1 De clar. Orat. 72. Quinct. xii. 10. 2 De clar. Orat.; pro Harusp. resp. 19. 

3 Quinct. x. 1 and 2. De clar. Orat. 75. 4 Ibid. 

5 Ibid, ad Atticum, xiv. 1. 6 Ibid. 

' Dialog, de Orat. 20 and 22. Quinct. x. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



311 



literature, too, was now familiar to all classes ; and taste began Cicero. 
sensibly to decline. The national appetite felt a craving for 
stronger and more stimulating compositions. Impatience was 
manifested at the tedious majesty and formal graces, the parade 
of arguments, grave sayings, and shreds of philosophy, 1 which 
characterised their fathers ; and a smarter and more sparkling kind 
of oratory succeeded, 2 just as in our own country, the minuet of 
the last century has been supplanted by the quadrille, and the 
stately movements of Giardini have given way to the brisker and 
more artificial melodies of Rossini. Corvinus, even before the time 
of Augustus, had shown himself more elaborate and fastidious in 
his choice of expressions. 3 Cassius Severus, the first who openly 
deviated from the old style of oratory, introduced an acrimonious 
and virulent mode of pleading. 4 It now became the fashion to 
decry Cicero as inflated, languid, tame, and even deficient in orna- 
ment ; 5 Mecaenas and Gallio followed in the career of degeneracy ; 
till flippancy of attack, prettiness of expression, and glitter of 
decoration prevailed over the bold and manly eloquence of free Home. 

1 " It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of others, 
to add a little of their own, and overlook their master." — Johnson. We have 
before compared Cicero to Addison as regards the purpose of inspiring their 
respective countrymen with literary taste. They resembled each other in the 
return they experienced. 2 Dialog. 18. 3 Dialog. 18. 4 Dialog. 19. 

5 Dialog. 18 and 22. Quinct. xii. 10. 




The Forum. 



MSS., EDITIONS, &c. OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



I. PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 

Editt. Prince. : — 

Collected Philosophical Works. SweynheymandPannartz. Romae,147l. 

De Officiis, De Amicitia, De Senectute, Somnium Scipionis, Paradoxa, 

Tusculanae Queestiones, without name or date, but known to be 

published by Gering, Crantz, and Friburger. Paris, about 1471. 

De Legibus, Academica, De Finibus. Gbrenz. Lips. 1809-1813. (This 

edition was intended to comprise the whole of the Philosophical 

works.) 

1. Rhetorical Philosophy : — 

Ed. Princ. Alexandrinus and ^Esulanus. Venet. 1485. Containing De 
Oratore, Orator, Topica, Partitiones Oratorise, De Optimo Genere 
Oz-atorum. Reprinted at Venice, 1488 and 1495. 

First complete edition. Aldus. Venet. 1514. 

Schutz. Lips. 1804. 

Wetzel (Opera Rhetorica Minora). Lignitz, 1807. 

Beier and Orelli (Orator, Brutus, Topica, de Optimo Genere Oratorum). 
Turici, 1830. 

PARTITIONES ORATORIO. 

Ed. Princ, Fontana. Venet. (?) 1472. 

(Two other undated editions are supposed by bibliographers to be 

earlier. One is known to have been printed at Naples by Moravus.) 
Gryphius. Lugd. Bat. 1545. 
Camerarius. Lips. 1549. 
Sturmius. Strasb. 1565. 
Minos. Paris, 1 582. 

Majoragius and Marcellinus. Venet. 1587. 
Hauptmann. Lips. 1741. 
Subsidium : — 

Reuschius de Ciceronis Partitionibus Oratoriis. Helmst. 1723. 



DE ORATORE. 

The first perfect MS. of this work was found at Lodi, hence called Codex 

Laudensis. It is now lost. 
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. At the monastery of Subiaco, 

between 1465 and 1467. 
Pearce. Lond. 1795. 
Wetzel. Brunsv. 1794. 
Harles. Lips. 1819 (embracing Pearce). 
Miiller. Lips. 1819. 
Heinischen. Hafn. 1830. 



MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TTJLLIUS CICERO. 313 

Subsidia : — 

Ernesti De PrsestantiS, Librorum Ciceronis de Oratore Prolusio. 

Lips. 1736. 
Mattbise Prolegomen zu Cicero's Gespracben vom Eedner. Francof. 

1812. 
Scbott, Commentarius quo Ciceronis de Fine Eloquentige Sententia 

examinatur. Lips. 1801. 
Gierig, Von dem astetiscben W ertbe der Biicber des Cicero's vom 

Eedner. Fuld. 1807. 
Scbaarscbmidt de Proposito Libri Ciceronis de Oratore. Scbneeberg. 

1804. 
Trompbeller, Versucb einer Cbaracteristik der Ciceroniscben Biicber 

vom Eedner. Coburg, 1830. 



BBUTUS. 

MS. Tbe Laudensian above mentioned. 

Ed. Princ. Swevnbeym and Pannartz. Bomse, 1469. 

Ellendt. Konigsberg, 1826. 

OEATOR. 
Ed. Princ. same as Brutus. 
Meyer. Lips. 1827. 
Subsidia : — 

Ramus, Brutinse Qusestiones in Oratorem Ciceronis. Paris, 1549. 

Perionius, Oratio pro Cic. Oratore contra P. Eamum. Paris, 1541 

Majoragius, In Oratorem Cic. Commentarius. Basil. 1552. 

Junius, In Oratorem Cic. Scbobe. Argent. 1585. 

Burcbardus, Animadv. ad Cic. Oratorem. Berobn. 1815. 



DE OPT. GEN. OEATOEUM. 

Ed. Princ, annotante Acbille Statio. Paris. 1551 and 1552. 
Saalfrank (cum Topicis et Partitionibus). Eatisb. 1823. 



TOPICA. 

Ed. Princ. witbout name or date: supposed, Venet. 1472. 
Tbe Commentaries of Boetbius, G. Valla, Melancbtbon, J. Visorius, Hegen- 
dorpbinus, Latomus, Goveanus, Talvus, Curio, Acbilles Statius, are 
contained in tbe editions printed at Paris by — 
Tiletanus, 1543. 
David, 1550. 
Vascosanus, 1554. 
Eicbardus, 1557 and 1561. 

RHETOEICA AD HEEENNIUM. 

Ed. Prin. in Ciceronis Ebetorica Nova et Vetus. Jenson. Venet. 1470. 
Burmann, edited by Lindemann. Lips. 1828. 
Subsidia : — 

Van Heusde, De ^Elio Stilone. Utrecbt, 1839. 

Eegius, Utrum Ars Ebetorica ad Herennium Ciceroni falsi) inscribatur. 
Venet. 1492. 



314 MBS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

2. Political Philosophy:— 

DE EEPUBLICA. 

MS. The work was supposed to have been altogether lost, until the year 

1822, when Angelo Mai restored about one-fourth of it from a 

palimpsest in the Vatican. 
Ed. Princ. Mai. Romse, 1822. 
Villemain. Paris, 1823. 
Creuzer and Moser. Francof. 1826. 
Subsidia : — 

Wolf. Obss. Critt. in M. Tull. Cic. Oratt. pro Scauro et pro Tullio, 
et librorum de Rep. Fragm. 1824. 

Zacharia Staatswissenschaftliche Betrachtungen iiber Ciceros neu 
aufgefundenes Werk vom Staate. Heidelb. 1823. 

DE LEGIBUS. 

Ed. Princ. in the Philosophical works. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romce, 

1471. 
Davis. Cantab. 1727, 1728. 
Gorenz. Lips. 1809. 
Moser and Creuzer. Francof. 1824. 
Bake. Lugd. Bat. 1842. 

3. Moral Philosophy: — 

DE OFFICIIS. 

Ed. Princ. with the Paradoxa. Fust and Schb'ffer. Mainz. 1465 and 1466. 
One without date or name, but supposed to be from the press of 

Ulrich Zell. Colon. 1469. 
Another, generally referred to the following year, supposed to be by 

Ulrich Han, of Rome. 
Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romse, 1469. 
Vindelin de Spira. Venet. 1470. 
Eggesteyn. Strasb. 1470. 
Heusinger. Brunsv. 1783. 
Gernhard. Lips. 1811. 
Beier. Lips. 1820-21. 
Subsidia : — 

Buscher, Ethicse Ciceronianse Libri ii. Hamb. 1610. 

Rath. Cic. de Officiis in brevi conspectu. Halse, 1803. 

Thorbecke, Principia Philosophise Moralis e Ciceronis Operibus. 
Lugd. Bat. 1817. 



CATO MAJOR (DE SENECTUTE). 

Ed. Princ. :— 

This treatise is in the Philosophical works printed by Sweynheym and 
Pannartz, but five previous editions had appeared at Cologne. They 
are undated. The first three were by Ulrick Zell, the next by "Winter 
de Hornborch, the last by Arnold Therhoernen. 

Gernhard (with the Paradoxa). Lips. 1819. 

Otto. Lips. 1830. 



MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 315 



L^LIUS (DE AMICITIA). 

Ed. Princ. Guldenschaff. Colon. 

Ulrich Zell. Colon. 
These have no date, but Guldenschaff's is the earlier, and both are older 

than the edition of the philosophical works by Sweynheym and 

Pannartz. 
Gernhard. Lips. 1825. 
Beier. Lips. 1828. 



4. Metaphysical Philosophy: — 

ACADEMICA. 

Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz (in the philosophical works). 
Davis. Cantab. 1725. 
Gorenz. Lips. 1810. 
Orelli. Turici. 1827. 

DE FINIBUS BONORUM ET MALORUM. 

Ed. Princ. without name or date. Believed to be from the press of Ulrich 

Zell, at Cologne, and about 1467. 
Joannes ex Colonia. Venet. 1471. 
Davis. Cantab. 1728. 
Rath. Hal. Sax. 1804. 
Gorenz. Lips. 1813. 
Otto. Lips. 1831. 
Madvig. Hafn. 1839. 

TUSCULAN.E QJL.ESTIONES. 

Ed. Princ. Ulrich Han. Romte, 1469. 

There are several other editions in the 15th century. 

Davis. Cantab. 1709. 

Rath. Hal. 1805. 

Orelli et Variorum. Turici, 1829. 

Kiihner. Jenae, 1829. 

Moser. Hannov. 1836-37 (the most complete). 

PARADOXA. 

Ed. Princ. (with the De Officiis). Fust and Schoffer. Mainz. 1465. 
Reprinted by Fust and Gernshem, 1466. 

Published with the De Officiis, De Amicitia, and De Senectute, by Sweyn- 
heym and Pannartz. Romse, 1469. 

The same, with the Somnium Scipionis, by Vindelin de Spira. Venet. 
1470. 

There are many editions of the 18th century. 

Wetzel. Lignitz, 1808. 

Gernhard. Lips. 1819. 

Borgers. Lugd. Bat. 1826. 



316 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

5. Theological Philosophy: — 



DE NATURA DEORUM. 

Ed. Princ. in the philosophical works by Sweynheym and Pannartz. 

Davis. Cantab. 1718. 

Moser and Creuzer. Lips. 1818. 



DE DIVINATIONS. 

Ed. Princ. as above. 

Davis. Cantab. 1721. 

Rath. Hal. 1807. 

Creuzer, Kayser, and Moser. Franco!" 1828. 



DE FATO. 

Published together with " De Divinatione/' 



SUBSIDIA ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CICERO. 

Brucker, Historia Critica Philosophise. Vol. II., pp. 1 — 70. 
Sibert, Examen de la Philosophic de Ciceron. 

(Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr. Vols. XLII. and XLIII.) 
Bitter, Geschichte der Philosophic Vol. IV., pp. 76—168. 
Waldin, De Philosophic Ciceronis Platonica. Jena. 1753. 
Zierlein, De Philosophic Ciceronis. Hal. 1770. 
Brieglieb, Programma de Philosophic Ciceronis. Cob. 1784. 
Fremling, Philosophia Ciceronis. Lund. 1795. 
Hulsemann, De Indole Philosophise Ciceronis. Luneb. 1799. 
Gedicke, Historia Philosophise Antiquse ex Ciceronis scriptis. Berol. 

1815. 
Van Heusde, M. Tullius Cicero (\>LXoTvXarwv. Traj. ad Rhen. 1836. 
Kiihner, M. Tullii Ciceronis in Philosophiam et ejus partes merita. 

Hamb. 1825. 



II. SPEECHES. 



Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romse. 1471. 

Valdarfer. Venet. 1471. 

Ambergau. Venet. 1472. 
There is also an edition without name or date supposed to be the time 

Editio Princeps. 
Roigny. Paris. 1536. 

Grsevius. Amstel. 1695 — 1699. (Variorum Edition.) 
Klotz. Lips. 1835. 
The editions of separate speeches are very numerous. 






MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 317 



III. LETTEES. 

Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romas. 1470. 

Jenson. Venet. 1470. 
Aldus adnotante Minucio. Venet. 1548. 

Schiitz. Hal. 1809—1812. (This edition omits the letters to Brutus.) 
Subsidium : — 

Abeken. Cicero in seinen Briefen. 



COMPLETE WOEKS. 



Ed. Princ. Minutianus. Mediol. 1498. Lambinus. Paris. 1566. 
Manutius and Naugerius. Venet. 1519 Gruter. Hamb. 1618. 

—1523. Gronovius. Lugd Bat. 1691. 

Ascensius. Paris. 1522. Verburgius. Amst. 1724. 

Cratander. Basil. 1528. Olivet. Genev. 1743—1749. 

Hervagius. Basil. 1534. ErnestL HaLSax. 1774—1777- 

Junta. Venet. 1534—1537. Schiitz. Lips. 1814—1823. 

C. Stephanus. Paris. 1555. Orelli. TuricL 1826—1837. 




CICERONIANISM. 



BY THE LATE 



EEV. EDWABD SMEDLEY, M.A. 

FORMERLY FELLOW OF SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND AFTERWARDS 
FREBENDAKSt OF LINCOLN. 



This article is reprinted from the Lexicographical department of the 
former edition of the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," as a kind of appendix 
to Mr. Newman's paper, being an illustration of the influence exercised by 
the authority of Cicero long after the language had ceased to be written 
by those who spoke it. 







Erasmus. 



CICEKONIANISM. 



Towards the latter end of the XVth century a literary heresy Ciceronian- 
arose in Italy, the supporters of which assumed the name of Cice- lsm ' 
ronians. Their principle was, that in writing Latin no word Ciceronians. 
ought to be used unless it was sanctioned by the authority of 
Cicero. The chief scholars of the day ranged themselves on oppo- 
site sides, and the controversy was sometimes waged with no slight 
acrimony. Among the first who entered the lists may be mentioned 
Paolo Cortesi. This learned Tuscan, on transmitting to Politian a Cortesi. 
collection of letters which he had taken the trouble of amassing, (to 
little purpose as his correspondent told him,) avowed himself a 
staunch Ciceronian. The reply of Politian may be found in the Poutian. 
[last letter but one of the Vlllth book of his Epistles. He asks 
'Cortesi whether he prefers the smooth visage of the ape, which 
after all is but a caricature of the human countenance, to the honest 
roughness of the lion and the bull? He condemns the languor 
and weakness, the lack of energy, of life, and of originality of such 
jsluggish and slumbering imitators, who beg their bread, as it were 
jby morsels, for the use of the day ; and who, if the author whom 
they are in the habit of mangling should not happen to be at hand, 
^annot put their words together without some illiterate barbarism. 
|He urges his friend to study and to digest Cicero as he would any 
other fine writer ; but not timidly to swim by him as by a cork, nor 
servilely to plant his steps upon the very same track as his leader. 

[K.L.] T 






322 



CICERONIANISM. 



Hermolaus 

Barbaro. 

Muretus. 



1 



Ciceronian. Politian retained tliese opinions to the last, and when dedicating 
hm * his own epistles to Pietro de Medici, about a month before his 

death, he advanced good reasons for not having confined himself to 
the school of Cicero, or of any other master. This letter to Cortesi 
produced a reply from him but little worthy of his reputation, and 
the combat soon thickened ; Hermolaus Barbaro brought his stores 
of erudition in behalf of Politian ; and Muretus honourably recanted 
a youthful opinion which inclined him to the opposite party. In 
his Varice Lectiones, (xvii.) is a chapter entitled Be stultitld quorun- 
dam qui se Clceronianos vocant, in which he tells a pleasant story 
relative to this dispute. It seems that he had carefully treasured 
up several uncommon words, which really did occur, though rarely, 
and perhaps as &7rag Xeyofxeva, in the writings of Tully. They 
were not, however, to be found in the index of Nizolius, which had 
been assumed as the touchstone of Ciceronianism ; and on a visit 
which some of the more bigoted partisans of that sect paid to one 
of Muretus's lectures, he took especial pains to introduce these 
words into his oration. What was the sly and mischievous joy of 
the critic when he saw his fastidious friends shrugging up their 
shoulders and contracting their brows, and heard them with wry 
faces whispering to each other, that their brains were muddled and 
their ears tortured by such flagitious barbarisms ! nay, when accord- 
ing to the custom of his time, they escorted him to his own house, 
as a fitting compliment, they could not refrain from some expres- 
sions signifying that he had ill-used them by thus violating their 
feelings. Having enjoyed his sport sufficiently, he let them into his 
secret ; and as soon as the words were recognised to be Cicero's, 
then, he adds, the tone was wholly changed, and that which had 
been stigmatised as coarse, rough speech, became on a sudden 
sweet and soft and polished ; ut lupini aqua macerati omnem amari- 
tiem exuerant simulatque eas Ciceronis esse constiterat. 
Longueii. On the side of the opposite party Longueil gave a remarkable 

testimony of his attachment to these fantastic principles. After 
having acquired a considerable reputation for the purity of his 
Latin style, which had been unconfined in its range of authorities, 
in his latter years, while on a visit at Kome, he composed two 
Tracts in Ciceronian Latin. One, Christophori Longolii Civis 
Romani, Perduellionis rei, Defensiones duo: the other, ad Luther anos 
jam damnatos ; and so enamoured was he of this new vein, that on 
his death-bed he instructed his executors to reserve these pieces 
only, and to commit all his former works to the flames ; an injunc- 
tion which in part was too faithfully obeyed. Another follower of 
Pauius this sect was Paulus Manutius, who, in the judgment of Scaliger, 
Manutins. wm t e better Ciceronianism than Longueil. The first, he said, 
accommodated Tully to his own purpose ; the latter was compelled 
to quit his own meaning in order to follow that of Tully : but 



CICERONIANISM. 323 

Paulus, it should be remembered, had already edited Cicero, and ciceronian- 
must have been, siquis alius, deeply versed in his style. The lsm ' 
example of Longueil on his death-bed was followed by Navagiero ; Navagiero. 
and the only two of his works which he sought to rescue from the 
flames were his Ciceronian Funeral Orations; on Bartolomeo 
d'Alviano, and the Doge Leonardo Loredano. Calcagnini, the Caicagnini 
profound canon of Ferrara, who requested to be buried in the 
Dominican Library, in order that he might repose when dead in 
the same apartment in which the greater part of his living days 
had been passed, although a Ciceronian, encountered the rod of 
Majorajius, for some expressions which he had used in his Disqui- 
sition on the Officia. Even Majorajius himself, in the opinion of 
j his sect, did not go far enough : he was but a lukewarm Ciceronian, 
i for he admitted the words of other Roman authors, and Nizolius 
\ rebuked him for his heterodoxy. 

But the most distinguished work which arose from this contro- 
s versy, and the only one which is remembered by posterity, is the 
j Ciceronianus of Erasmus. With that unequalled mixture of wit ciceronianvt 
1 and learning which adorns all his compositions, this "great injured of Erasmus. 
< name " marshalled himself against the reigning folly ; and by his 
i light and agreeable raillery discomfited the host of pedants, who in 
- vain turned upon their careless assailant all the heavy artillery 
t| which they could bring into the field. Three interlocutors support 
■ the dialogue ; the first, Nosoponus, a confirmed Ciceronian, who 
professes that he would rather be a perfect imitator of his great 
oracle than enjoy a consulate, a pontificate, or even a canonisation. 
For this exaggerated admiration, however, Erasmus was not with- 
out grave authority. The preference had been really expressed by 
Lazaro Buonamico, who added that he should have chosen the 
•| eloquence of Tully before the empire of Augustus. Bulephorus 
and Hypologus banter Nosoponus upon his diseased fancy, and 
almost succeed in converting him. The dialogue abounds with 
pleasant writing, and is rich in characters of contemporary authors. 
Look, say the opponents of Nosoponus, to the pagan images with 
| which your Latin must of necessity be invested ; and they then 
turn the following passage into Ciceronian speech : " Iesus Christus, 
Verbum et Filius seterni Patris, juxta prophetias venit in mundum, 
j ac, factus homo, sponte se in mortem tradidit ac redemit Ecclesiam 
> suam, offensique Patris iram avertit a nobis, eique nos reconciliavit, 
j ut per gratiam fidei justificati, et a (Diaboli) tyrannide liberati, inse- 
i ramur Ecclesise, et in Ecclesise communione perseverantes, post 
hanc vitam consequamur regnum cselorum." This Christian para- 
graph, to become Ciceronian, must submit to a strange metamor- 
,, pilosis. " Optimi Maximique Jovis interpres ac filius, Servator, 
f Kex, juxta Yatum responsa, ex Olympo devolavit in terras, et 
hominis assumta figura sese pro salute Reipublicae sponte devovit 

y2 



324 



CICERONIANISM. 



Ciceronian- 
ism. 



Doletus 



Scaliger. 



Diis Manibus ; atque ita concionem, sive civitatem, sive Bempub- 
licam suam asseruit in libertatem, ac Jovis Optimi Maximi vibratum 
in nostra capita fulmen restinxit, nosque cum illo redegit in gratiam, 
ut, persuasionis munificentia ad innocentiam reparati, et a sycophantae 
dominatu manumissi, cooptemur in civitatem, et, in Keipublica? 
societate perseverantes, quiim fata nos evocarint ex hac vita, in 
Deorum immortalium consortio rerum summa potiamur." How- 
little caricature is used in this extract may be determined by an 
inspection of Bembo's Letters. Though secretary to Leo X., and 
invested with the purple, he does not scruple, in the History of 
Venice, to make the senate of that state exhort the reigning pontiff, 
"Uti fidat Diis immortalibus, quorum vicem gerit in terris;" in- 
stead of " fides " he writes " persuasio ; " instead of " excommu- 
nicatio," " ab aqua et igni interdictio : " and, even when addressing 
official despatches in the very person of the representative of 
St. Peter, he blames the inhabitants of Recanati for providing 
unsound timber for the Casa di Loretto in such terms as these : 
"Ne turn nos turn etiam Beam ipsam (the Virgin Mary) inani 
lignorum inutilium donatione lusisse videamini : " and, while exhort- 
ing Francis I. to a crusade against the Turks, he invokes him 
"per Deos atque homines." 

It is not easy to describe the fury with which the Ciceronians 
assailed the dialogue of Erasmus. Doletus, the unhappy printer, 
whose Lutheranism or Atheism (for his enemies accused him of 
both, and with some, of those times, the charges were synonymous) 
afterwards brought him to the stake, first attacked Erasmus himself 
in a dialogue, Be Imitatione Ciceroniand, in which Sir Thomas More 
and Simon de Yilleneuve maintain the dispute; and afterwards 
poured his wrath upon Eloridus Sabinius, who had espoused the 
other party, and was overwhelmed with prose and verse, with 
argument, invective, and epigram. The whole of Italy was in 
flame. Sambucus, Sadoletus, Johannes Lascaris, Julius Camillus, 
and Paulus Jovius, all entered the lists ; and Erasmus was falsely 
accused of undervaluing Cicero, not of exposing Ciceronianism. 
It was reserved, however, for the elder Scaliger to produce the 
most signal monument of literary bitterness and inconsistency 
which the annals of controversy can display. In 1531 he put forth 
Oratio adversus Bes. Mr. Moquentice Romance vindex, a tract, which 
six years afterwards was followed by a second of the same kind. 
If Catiline or Cethegus themselves had risen from the dead, Cicero- 
nianism could not have encountered rounder terms for their vitupe- 
ration than those which are here levelled against Erasmus. He is 
called " Eomani nominis vomica ; Eloquentiae scopulum ; Latinas 
puritatis contaminator ; Eloquentise eversor ; Literarum carnifex ; 
omnium ordinum labes; omnium studiorum macula; omnium 
aetatum venenum; mendaciorum parens; furoris alumnus; Furia, 



CICERONIANISM. 325 

cujus scriptis incolumibus Eespublica sive Christiana, sive Literaria, ciceroniaa- 

stare non potest : " finally, he is " Coenum, Busiris, Vipera generis lsm - 

humani, monstrum, parricida et triparricida." In a letter written 

by his father, which the younger Scaliger afterwards suppressed, 

but which may be found in the edition of Thoulouse (xv. addressed 

'to Eerronius) he condescends to still more unmeasured abuse. 

He taxes his meek and modest antagonist, (if he who personally 

jhad never written against him can be called an antagonist) with 

;the dishonour of his birth: "spurius es," he says, "ex incesto 

natus concubitu, sordidis parentibus, altero sacrificulo, altera pros- 

'tituta." 

Erasmus unjustly suspected Cardinal Aleander, against whom he 
nursed a strong dislike, to be the author of the first of these 
j orations. He felt the invective of it acutely ; and it is said that he 
collected and burned all the copies which he could get into his 
hands. Scaliger afterwards recanted, not his Ciceronianism, but 
; his ferocious calumnies. He even wrote an epitaph on the death 
of him whom he had thus atrociously libelled : but it was a compo- 
sition which was little calculated by its merit to appease his injured 
ghost, if it could be supposed still to retain the memory of literary 
quarrels. Infinite self-gratulation, however, must have resulted to 
: Erasmus from his satire. Though, at the moment, it diminished 
j the number of his admirers, and exposed him to the bitterest male- 
volence, it nevertheless struck a death-blow at Ciceronianism. 
;This silly fancy faded away like the romance of the Spaniards 
before the pen of Cervantes. A few of the Italian school attempted, 
but in vain, to prolong the existence of the expiring sect, as a few 
coxcombs after them from time to time have attempted to revive it. 
s ;But it was no longer doubted by the great majority of scholars, 
Ithat pure Latinity could be drunk from other sources besides that 
1 of Tully ; and that it was a mistaken and illiberal monopoly, which 
■ sought to confine the stream of Koman eloquence in the narrow 
' bed of a single channel. 

The reader who wishes for more on this subject may consult the 
various tracts of the authors who have been incidentally mentioned 
in our brief notice above. The literary historians of the Cinque- 
centi will give him plentiful details. Some of Bayle's remarks Bayie. 
(particularly in the lives of Bembo, Majorajius, and Erasmus) 
furnish curious anecdotes. Many facts will be found scattered up 
| and down Jortin's rambling and ill-adjusted, but overflowing Life 
' of M'asmus ; the whole is neatly and concisely put together in 
Burigny's Vie d'Urasme; and Baillet, in Les Jugemens des 
(lvii.) has stated the chief criticisms upon the Clceronianus itself. 



THE 



HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



BY THE LATE 



THOMAS AEXOLD, D.D. 



HEAD MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL. 



Reprinted from the original edition. 



THE HISTORIANS OF HOME. 

THEOPOMPUS .... FLOURISHED CIRCITER U. C. 400. A.C. 354. 

CLITARCHUS U.C. 420. A.C. 334. 

THEOPHRASTUS . BORN U.C. 381. A.C. 373. DIED U.C. 466. A.C. 288. 

HIERONYMUS "1 

Y FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 500. A.C. 254. 
TIJLEUS J 

DIOCLES, UNCERTAIN, BUT BEFORE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 

QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 529. A.C. 225. 

LUCIUS CINOIUS ALIMENTUS U.C. 542. A.C. 212. 

MARCUS PORCIUS CATO . BORN U.C. 521. A.C. 233. DIED U.C. 606. A.C. 148. 

LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 620. A.C. 134. 

LUCIUS C^LIUS ANTIPATER ... . . U. C. 633. A.C. 121. 

CN^US GELLIUS . U.C. 630. A.C. 124. 

CAIUS LICINIUS MACER "I „ rtrt eA 

\ u.c. 700. a.c. 54. 

LUCIUS iELIUS TUBERO J 

QUINTUS VALERIUS ANTIAS 1 , K „ „, 

\ u.c. 670. a.c. 84. 

LUCIUS SISENNA J 

POLTBIUS . . . BORN U.C. 548. A.C. 206. DIED U.C. 630. A.C. 124. 

CAIUS CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS, BORN U.C. 668. A.C. 86. DIED U.C. 719. A.C. 35. 

CAIUS JULIUS CESAR . BORN U.C. 653. A.C. 101. DIED U.C. 710. A.C. 44. 

TITUS LIVIUS . . BORN U.C. 661. A.C. 93. DIED U.C. 737. A.C. 17. 

DIONYSIUS HA.LICARNASSENSIS . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 749. A.C. 5. 

DIODORUS SICULUS U.C. 710. A.C. 44. 

APPIANUS A.D. 143. 

DION CASSIUS A.D. 229. 

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS A.D. 3. 

CAIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS . . BORN A.D. 57. DIED CIRCITER A.D. 99. 

CORNELIUS NEPOS .... DIED CIRCITER U.C. 729. A.C. , 25. 

PLUTARCHUS ......... DIED A.D. 119. 

CAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS .... DIED CIRCITER A.D. 120. 

LUCIUS ANN^US FLORUS .... FLOURISHED CIRCITER A.D. 116. 

JUSTINUS A.D. 148. 

VALERIUS MAXIMUS A.D. 23. 







THE HISTOKIANS OF EOME. 

We propose in the present section to give some account of the 
progress of historical writing from the age of Xenophon to that 
of Tacitus ; or, which is nearly the same thing, to notice the 
characters of the principal writers, whether Greeks or Latins, to 
whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the history of Eome. 

But before we proceed to speak of those authors, of whose works Earliest 
enough has been preserved to allow us to judge sufficiently of their J^Jpolen 
merits and defects, it will be proper to give a brief sketch of those also of Home. 
who are known to us only through the reports of others ; their own 
writings, with the exception of some scattered fragments, having been 
long since lost. Theopomptjs of Chios, a scholar of Isocrates, who Theo- 
continued the History of Thucydides to the end of the Pelopon- pompus - 
nesian war, and in another work gave an account of the actions of 
Philip of Macedon, is said by Pliny 1 to have been the oldest Greek 
writer who made any mention of the affairs of Home. However, 
he merely noticed the capture of the city by the Gauls ; an event 
which seems to have excited some interest in Greece, as it was 
spoken of not only by Theopompus, but by Aristotle, 2 and by 
Heraclides of Pontus, both of whom flourished at the same period. 
Clitauchus, the follower and historian of Alexander, named the Clitarehua. 
Bomans among the different nations who sent embassies to his 

1 Histor. Natural, iii. 5. 2 Plutarch, iu Caniillo, c. 22. 



330 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Theo- 
phrastus. 



Hieronymus. 
Timacus. 

Diodes. 



How much 
of the early 
Roman 
History is 
probably of 
domestic 
origin. 



master, probably to deprecate his displeasure ; and Theophrastus, 
so well known for his lively sketches of Moral Characters, as well 
as by his works on plants and minerals, 1 is said to have bestowed 
some attention on the affairs of Rome. In his History of Plants, 
which is still preserved to us, he speaks of an unsuccessful attempt 
of the Bomans to land on the coast of Corsica ; and this is the first 
mention of their name, which is to be found in any original Greek 
writer now extant. A few years after Theophrastus, lived Hiero- 
nymus of Cardia, who, according to Dionysius, 2 first gave a con- 
nected sketch of the early history of Borne : and Tim^eus, a Sicilian, 
besides treating of the first part of the Eoman Annals in his 
Universal History, wrote also a separate account of the Italian 
campaigns of Pyrrhus. But, according to Plutarch, 3 it was not 
Hieronymus of Cardia, but Diocles of Peparethus, who first pub- 
lished that report of the foundation of Eome, which, having been 
adopted by the most ancient Eoman annalists, has been exclusively 
transmitted to posterity, and has caused all the other traditions to 
be forgotten, which once were circulated on the same subject. 
Plutarch asserts in plain terms, 4 that Q. Fabius Pictor, the oldest 
Eoman annalist, borrowed his narrative of Eomulus from the work 
of Diocles ; and Dionysius asserts as plainly, 5 that the account of 
Fabius was in its turn followed as an authority by Cato and 
L. Cincius ; who, together with Fabius, are the most distinguished 
of the early Eoman historians. If this statement then be true, the 
original Eoman writers were themselves only the transcribers of 
the narrative of a foreigner ; and we cannot be sure that any part 
of the story of Eomulus is founded on traditions which are un- 
questionably of Eoman origin. 

But a more temperate judgment of the matter will pronounce a 
less sweeping sentence. It is exceedingly probable that Fabius 
Pictor may have borrowed the story of the birth of Eomulus, and of 
his personal adventures, either from Diocles or from some other 
Greek writer ; because it is exactly the sort of narrative which is 
apt to originate in the fancy of an injudicious writer of a later age, 
and there was no Eoman historian older than himself from whom 
he could have copied it. The accidents of Eomulus's infancy bear 
a remarkable resemblance to the Persian tradition of the birth and 
early life of Cyrus, to which Herodotus has given celebrity ; and 
the stories of Brutus the Trojan in our own country, and of similar 
heroes in other countries of modern Europe, prove sufficiently that 
circumstantial narratives of the first settlement of a people may be 
composed without resting in the slightest degree on any domestic 
tradition. But the distinction which Cicero 6 makes between the 



1 Pliny, ubi supra. 
3 In Romulo, c. 3. 
6 De Republic^, ii. 2. 



2 Dionysius Halicarnass. i. 6. 
4 Ibid. 5 i. 79. 

Ut jam a Fabulis ad Facta veniamus.' 



THE HISTORIANS OF EOME. 331 

personal adventures of Komulus before the foundation of Eome, and 
the institutions which were traced back to the period of his govern- 
ment, seems in the main a just one. The first he calls " Fables," 
the second " Tacts ; " and although the ignorance of careless 
writers has materially disguised those facts, yet the outlines are of 
a kind not likely to have been invented by a mere fabulist, but such 
as would have been preserved either in actual public records, or by 
the continued existence in later times of the institutions to which 
they refer. We may be well satisfied that neither Diodes, nor any 
other Greek, invented the account of the union between the 
Romans and Sabines ; of the division of the people into three tribes, 
the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres, and into thirty Curiae ; of 
the distinction between the patricians and plebeians ; of the lictors 
and other insignia of dignity which were borrowed from Tuscany ; 
and of those curious ceremonies which Plutarch describes as 
having been practised at the foundation of the city. With regard 
to the reigns of the successors of Romulus, we may assert the 
genuineness of many facts transmitted to us by the early annalists 



Fountain of Egeria. J 

with still greater confidence. The fragments of the laws of Numa 
preserved to us by Eestus; the law of murder in the reign of 

1 And in all that Numa did, he knew that he should please the gods ; for he 
did everything hy the direction of the nymph Egeria, Avho honoured him so much 
that she took him to he her hushand, and taught him in her sacred grove hy the 
spring that welled out from the rock, all that he was to do towards the gods and 
towards men. — Livy, i. 19, 20. Ovid, Fasti, iii. 276. 



Pictor. 



332 THE HISTORIANS OF HOME. 

Tullus Hostilius ; the form of the treaty between Eome and Alba ; 
the Jus Feciale, which Livy seems to have copied from L. Cincius ; 
the enlargement of the three original tribes by Tarquinius Priscus ; 
and, above all, the account of the Census of Ser. Tullius, and his 
dividing the whole people into thirty local tribes, quite distinct 
from the tribes in which the citizens of different races had been 
classed according to their different blood ; these, and other points 
of a similar nature, may be regarded as unquestionably genuine : 
while the more popular part of the Koman story, the personal 
characters and exploits of their kings, the events of foreign war, 
the causes and merits of domestic revolutions, and, much more, 
all the details of particular actions, may be safely ascribed to the 
foolish loquacity of some unwise writer ; or to that dishonest vanity 
which is known to have produced so much falsehood in the memoirs 
of private families ; or to the policy of a predominant party, seeking 
to give a false colour to the circumstances by which its own 
ascendency was established. 

q. Fabius It is unfortunate for the Eoman history that Quintus Fabius 

Pictor was the first and most popular of the Ptoman annalists. 
The common account of the events of the first four hundred and 
fifty years of the State's existence, is doubtless in the main copied 
from him ; and it is quite sufficient to show how great was his care- 
lessness, how shallow was his judgment, and how blind was his 
partiality. Instead of labouring to separate the few facts which 
were preserved to his time by genuine records or unsuspected tradi- 
tions, from the mass of idle inventions and misrepresentations with 
which they had been overwhelmed, he presented the whole to his 
readers in one heterogeneous compound, as if all were to be received 
with equal confidence. Instead of searching for such original 
records as were still in existence, though not generally made public ; 
such as the treaty concluded between Eome and Carthage in the 
first year of the Eepublic, and that which Por senna dictated to the 
Eomans, when they were forced to surrender their city to him ; 
he listened to the memoirs of the Valerian family, and to the 
temptations of national vanity, which represented P. Valerius 
Publicola as a colleague of L. Brutus in the consulship, and de- 
scribed the King of Clusium as abandoning gratuitously a prey, 
which was confessed to be already within his grasp. The general 
tenor of the story, usually given as the history of Eome, abundantly 
confirms that character of Fabius given by Polybius, who describes 
him as a writer at once partial and injudicious ; warping the truth 
in order to enhance the fame of his countrymen ; yet doing this 
with so little ability, that the inconsistencies and ignorances of his 
narrative often afford their own confutation. 

l. cincius The merits of Lucius Cincius Alimentus were apparently of 
a far higher order than those of Fabius. He was praetor in the 



Alimentus. 



LUCIUS CINCIUS ALIMENTUS. 333 

year of Eome 542, 1 about the middle of the second Punic war; and L.Cmcms 
at one period of that war he became Hannibal's prisoner, 2 and Ahraentus - 
learned from his own mouth the amount of the army with which he 
had entered Italy, and of the losses which he had sustained since he 
crossed the Ehone. He is called by Livy, 3 a curious investigator 
of ancient monuments and records ; and the fragments which are 
preserved of his different works seem fully to confirm this character. 
Most of these related to various points connected with the anti- 
quities and Constitutional history of Home ; such as the Comitia : 4 
the power of the Consuls : 5 the duty of a Lawyer : c the Fasti : 7 
military affairs, 9 &c. Besides all these, he wrote a regular history 
of Home, from the earliest ages down to his own times ; and this, 
if we may believe Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 9 was composed in 
Greek; but as he asserts the same thing of the Annals of Fabius Pictor, 
which were clearly written in Latin, it is not improbable that he 
mistook in both instances a Greek translation for the original work. 
In the fragments of Cincius, which are preserved by Festus, there 
are some notices of great value, particularly his account of the 
alliance between Eome and Latium, 10 which he represents in a very 
different light from that in which it is exhibited by the common 
historians of those times. But it should be remarked, that almost 
all these fragments are quoted from his minor works, which by their 
titles were evidently more laboured, and of a less popular character 
than his general history. It is not impossible, that in the latter he 
may have followed Fabius in repeating the story most adapted to 
flatter the pride of his readers, and to which the family memoirs, 
contained in the funeral orations of the most distinguished patricians, 
had already given a general circulation ; u while in his more scientific 
works he had really endeavoured to discover and to state the exact 
truth. When Fabius and Cincius wrote, history was still con- 
sidered more as a means of giving pleasure, and encouraging 
patriotic enthusiasm, than as a severe and impartial record of the 
actions and condition of mankind ; and thus Livy and Dionysius, 
whose histories bear evident marks of having been got up from 
the mere common sources of information, and who, while they read 

1 Livy, xxvi. 23. 2 Ibid. xxi. 38. 3 vii. 3. 

4 Festus, in voce Patricii. 5 Festus, Praetor ad Portam. 

6 Ibid. Nuncupata Pecunia. ' Macrobius, Saturnal. i. 12. 

8 Aulus Gellius, xvi. 4. 9 Ibid. i. 6. 

10 Festus, Praetor ad Portam. 
11 Something of this kind may be observed in Cardinal Fleury's Ecclesiastical 
History. In the body of bis work be has repeated the common tales which he 
found recorded by former writers, and generally received by the Roman Catholics ; 
but in the Essays or Discourses on particular points, which he has prefixed to 
some of the volumes, he writes in a totally different] spirit ; he is candid, cautious, 
and sensible, and has given the fairest account with which we are acquainted of 
the subjects on which he treats. 



334 



THE HISTORIANS OP ROME. 



M. Porcius 
Cato. 



the annals of Cincius, were not likely to study his other works, have 
not availed themselves of that more correct information, which his 
legal and antiquarian treatises would have afforded them. 

Marcus Porcius Cato nourished only a few years later than 

Pabius and Cincius. He was born 
about sixteen years before the 
beginning of the second Punic 
war ; l and filled the office of 
quaestor in the year of Ptome 549, 
in the consulship of M. Cethegus 
and P. Tuditanus. He was elected 




Cato the Censor, 



consul nine years afterwards ; and 
eleven years later, in the year oi 
Ptome 569, he obtained the cen- 
sorship; from which circumstance, 
he is usually designated by the 
title of Cato the Censor, to dis- 
tinguish him from his equally 
celebrated great-grandson, Cato 
of Utica. After a busy and active 
manhood, and having on all occasions testified the strongest aversion 
for the arts and literature of Greece, he began in his old age 2 to 
study the Greek language, and to devote himself to the investiga- 
tion of the antiquities of Italy, for which he found the Greek writers 
among his principal authorities. At an earlier part of his life he 
had published several speeches, as well as a Treatise on Agriculture ; 
but we are at present only considering him as an historian ; and 
the work which entitled him to this name was called Origines, or 
Antiquities, and consisted of seven books ; 3 the first of which con- 
tained the History of Eome under its Kings ; the second and third 
treated of the origin of all the several States of Italy ; the fourth 
and fifth embraced the two first Punic wars ; and the two last 
earned on the history of the wars that followed down to the 
prsetorship of Ser. Galba, in the year of Ptome 602. He died in the 
year 604, at the age of eighty-five, in the consulship of L. Marcius 
and Marcius Manilius. 

Of Cato's merits as a historian it is not very easy to form a 
judgment. His learning is spoken of with praise by Cicero, 
Cornelius Nepos, and Livy ; but it was not merely learning which 
was required, but an ability to weigh the merits of the numerous 
writers whose works he read, and to distinguish between that which 
was trustworthy in them, and that which was worthless. We are 
told that Cato wrote his Origines when he was advanced in years, 
and whilst he was prosecuting his study of the Greek writers with 



1 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, 15, 16. 2 Cicero, 

3 Cornelius Nepos, in Catone, 3. 



Senectute, 8. 



LUCIUS CELIUS ANTTPATER. 335 

all the keenness which he derived from the novelty of the pursuit. M. Porcius 
Under such circumstances he would be likely to attach an excessive Cat0, 
value to the information which he found in them ; their Greek etymo- 
logies of Italian names, however fanciful, would be apt to impose 
upon him, from the merits and importance which a language newly 
acquired always assumes, and from our fancied ability to see in it a 
derivation for many words, the origin of which we had never been 
able to ascertain. He relates the story of the sow and her thirty 
pigs, 1 which zEneas found on the banks of the Tiber, and whose 
number was typical of the number of years which should elapse 
before the Trojans should build the town of Alba. We are inclined 
to suspect that the Origines of Cato, if we possessed them, would be 
little more than a transcript of the History of Fabius, or of those 
Greeks from whom Pabius himself borrowed his narrative. But 
his particular treatises on various points of the constitution, of 
which so long a catalogue may be collected from Pestus, were pro- 
bably of much greater value ; as he was likely in these to have 
relied more on the authority of laws, or of existing usages and 
general traditions, and less on the writings of such historians as 
Pabius and Diodes of Peparethus. 

Next in order of time to Pabius, Cincius, and Cato, may be L.caipumius 
ranked Lucius Calpurnius Piso. He was consul in the year of 
Eome 620, when Tiberius Gracchus was murdered; and had been 
tribune sixteen years before, and had then brought forward the 
first law ever enacted in- Eome for the punishment of corruption 
and extortion in the provinces. 2 His annals seem to have gone 
back to the earliest times, as A. Gellius 3 quotes from him an 
anecdote of the private life of Eomulus ; and to have been carried 
down at least to the second Punic war. 4 Of their merits we know 
nothing; Cicero indeed speaks of them rather contemptuously, 
but this is on account of what he calls the meagreness of their 
style ; 5 and he takes no notice of their character in more important 
particulars. 

Lucius Cjelius Antipatek, who lived a few years later than l. Oeiius 
Piso, is commended in like manner for the eloquence and correct- Antl P ater - 
ness of his language, 6 when compared with that of the earlier 
writers ; but we are told nothing further concerning him. There 
is, however, a passage in Livy 7 which conveys a favourable impress- 
ion of him, where it is said, that Crelius had given three different 
accounts of the death of Marcellus ; one, according to the common 
tradition ; another, following the statement given by the son of 

1 Sex. Aurelius Victor, de Origine Gentis Romans. 
2 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, 27. ~ 3 ii. 14. 

4 Livy, xxv. 39. 
a " Reliquit Annales, sane exiliter scripto*." — Dc Claris Orat. 27. 
6 Cicero, de Legibus, i. 2 ; de Oratore, ii. 13. ~ xxvii. 27. 



336 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



L. Caelius 
Antipater. 



Other early 
historians. 



L. Sisenna. 



Marcellus, when pronouncing his father's funeral oration ; and a 
third, which he offers as the true story, the fruit of his own inves- 
tigations of the subject. This certainly implies some carefulness 
and weighing of testimony on the part of the historian; and it is 
confirmed by the character given of him by Valerius Maximus, 1 
" that he was an author to be depended upon ;" and by the 
circumstance that he, almost singly, as far as appears among the 
Eoman annalists, has stated with truth the passage of the Alps, by 
which Hannibal entered Italy, when he says that he crossed by the 
Cremonis Jugum, 2 or Little St. Bernard. 

To the names of early historians already mentioned, may be 
added those of Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, 3 Cn^ius Gellius, 
Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, (who translated his history 
from one written in Greek by Acilius, 4 and who must have been 
a most voluminous author, as Aulus Gellius quotes the] 50th Book 
of his Annals ;) 5 Caius Licinius Macer, Lucius iEuus Tubero, 
and Quintus Valerius Antias. We may be well assured, that 
none of these writers would have deserved much praise if their 
works had survived to us ; the exaggerations of Valerius Antias 
are well known; those of Claudius, on some occasions, nearly 
rival them; and Licinius Macer and iElius Tubero quote the 
IAbri Lintei differently as to the same fact, a circumstance which 
implies some carelessness in one or both of them. 

The name of Lucius Sisenna, who lived, together with Valerius 
Antias, 6 under the dictatorship of Sylla, is mentioned with much 
more respect. He was the author of a History of the Civil War 
between Marius and Sylla ; and is said by Cicero to have far 
surpassed every other Eoman historian ; and by Sallust, to have 
investigated and described the subject of which he treats, better 
and more carefully than any other writer. His work would have 
been exceedingly valuable ; as we have unfortunately no contem- 
porary account of that eventful period, which intervened between 
the third Punic war and the commencement of Cicero's political 
career. 

One only history of the beginning of the Vllth century of 
Rome has reached posterity in a state sufficiently uninjured to 
enable us to judge fully and fairly of its merits ; and to this we 
shall next call the attention of our readers, fatigued perhaps like 
ourselves with the unsatisfactory review of fragments, and the 
enumeration of almost forgotten names. Polybius, the son of 
Lycortas, was a native of Megalopolis, a city situated within the 

1 i. 7. " Caelius, certus Romanae Historiae Auctor." 

2 Livy, xxi. 38. 

3 A. Gellius, vi. 4. Cicero, de Legibus, i. 2. 
4 Livy, xxv. 39 ; xxxv. 14. 5 i. 7. 

6 Velleius Paterculus, ii. Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, 63. Sallust, Bell. 
Jugurth. 95. 



POLYBIUS. 337 

limits of Arcadia, but in its political relations being a member of p i y bi 
the Achaian confederacy. His father appears to have been a man 
of ability and patriotism, who exercising a considerable influence in 
the councils of his country, endeavoured to preserve the inde- 
pendence of Achaia by a manly and free demeanour towards the 
Romans, without provoking their enmity by displaying a fruitless 
spirit of opposition. Polybius entered into public life at an early 
age, and steadily supported and followed the policy of his father ; 
so that his conduct exposed him to the resentment of the Eomans, 
when their victory over the last king of Macedon at once disposed 
and enabled them to treat every relic of liberty in Greece as an 
affront to their supremacy. The party amongst the Achaians, 1 who 
hoped to win the favour of the Eomans by an excessive servility, 
j accused their more independent countrymen of being disaffected to 
■■ the interests of Eome ; and on this charge, Polybius, with more 
than a thousand others, was transported into Italy, and there 
detained for about seventeen years. His fellow prisoners were 
l mostly confined in Tuscany, or in other districts of Italy ; but he 
! himself, 2 through the interest of P. Scipio iEmilianus, and his 
I brother, whose fondness for Greek literature had first led to their 
acquaintance with him, was allowed to reside at Eome. His 
, acquaintance with P. Scipio, in particular, grew by degrees into an 
intimate friendship ; and when, after the lapse of seventeen years, 
those Achaians who had survived their captivity were allowed to 
! return home, Polybius continued to live with his friend, and was 
■ his companion in the third Punic war, 3 when he brought the siege 
I of Carthage to a conclusion, and destroyed the city. In the 
succeeding year he was an eye witness 4 of the miseries brought 
I upon his countrymen by their last ill-advised contest with the 
| Eomans ; and, on this occasion, he used his influence with the 
: Eoman officers to preserve untouched the statues of Aratus and 
' Philopcemen, who were represented by the flatterers of Eome as 
' having been the enemies of the Eoman power. After the final 
! settlement of the affairs of Greece by the ten commissioners, whom 
! the senate, as usual, despatched to determine the future condition 
| of the conquered country, Polybius was directed to go round the 
several cities of Peloponnesus, to endeavour to pacify their mutual 
jealousies, and to superintend the first operation of the new consti- 
• tution, which the Eomans had imposed upon them. The latter 
j years of his life appear to have been passed in his own country, 
1 where he is said to have died 5 in consequence of a fall from his 
horse, at the advanced age of eighty-two, about 124 years before 
' the Christian aera. 



1 Polybius, lib. xxx. c. 10. Pausanias, Achaica, c. 10. 

2 Polybius, lib. xxxii. c. 9. 3 Polybius, Fragment, lib. xxxix. 

4 Ibid. lib. xl. c. 7, 8. 5 Luciau, Macrobii, p. 917, ed. Paris, 1615. 

[R. L.] z 



338 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Poiybius. A long life so divided between an active participation in civil and 

military duties, and a leisure abundantly favoured with the means 
of acquiring information, was well calculated to form an excellent 
historian. The times, too, in which Poiybius lived, presented him 
with a most attractive subject ; he had witnessed the progress and 
completion of that career of conquest, which bestowed on a nation 
of half barbarians the greatest power in the civilised world, and 
which had established between the different countries bordering on 
the Mediterranean, a mutual connection till then unknown. 
Owing to this revolution, Greece could no longer pretend to claim 
the highest rank amongst nations ; she was herself reduced to 
absolute subjection, while those great offshoots from her vigorous 
root, the kingdoms formed by the successors of Alexander in 
Syria and Egypt, were themselves obliged to submit to the control, 
or to court the protection, of Eome. That barbarians should thus 
have obtained dominion over Greeks, could only be ascribed, in the 
fond persuasion of the latter, to that blind power of fortune 
against which the greatest human wisdom must struggle in vain. 
But Poiybius had learnt to appreciate more truly the causes of the 
Eoman ascendancy; and found them perfectly agreeable to the 
acknowledged principles which determine the fate of nations. He 
saw that the Romans owed their success, in part at least, to the 
inherent superiority of their institutions, and the undeviating 
singleness of aim which marked their policy. His long residence 
at Rome, the acquaintance which he had there gained with the 
Latin language, and still more his personal intimacy with some of 
the most distinguished Romans, enabled him to describe faithfully 
to the Greeks the exploits, character, and institutions of their 
conquerors; which other writers among his countrymen, partly 
from ignorance, partly from servility, and partly from the fondness 
of ordinary minds for splendid fables, had greatly misrepresented. 

Perhaps, however, the habit of conversing with men of unculti- 
vated minds, who were always looking to him, as to their teacher, 
for lessons of moral and political wisdom, produced on the character 
of Poiybius its usual effect, in leading him to expatiate with self- 
complacency on points which men in general understood as well as 
himself, and to mistake very trite and ordinary observations for 
truths at once original and striking. Many parts of his work, 
however useful they might have been if written in Latin, and 
addressed to Roman readers, must have appeared absolutely 
ridiculous to a Greek who had received the ordinary education of 
his countrymen. His long remarks on the usefulness of geography, 
and his tedious way of describing the shapes of different countries, 
must have appeared at once needless and dull to those of his 
readers who were familiar with the abundant information, and the 
lively sketches of Herodotus. When he stops, in almost every 



POLYBITJS. 339 

page, to descant upon some common-place axiom of morals or Polybius. 
politics, we can imagine how impatiently an Athenian would have 
turned over the volume, while he recollected with a sigh, those 
brief touches of a master's hand, by which Thucydides has furnished 
matter of thought for twenty centuries. Much indeed of his 
reflections is really valuable, and even when we are most tempted 
to complain of their triteness, we must generally allow their sound- 
ness. But the prosing tone which pervades the work detracts 
generally from its merit, inasmuch as, by fatiguing and disgusting 
the reader, it prevents his memory from grasping readily the facts 
contained in the history ; and, by overlaying the narrative with a 
mass of cumbrous digression, it adds to the obscurity which the 
very nature of the subject necessarily entailed upon it. In an 
j universal history, such as Polybius attempted to write, it requires 
i not only great clearness of arrangement, but great liveliness in 
the detail, in order to bring out into the most conspicuous light 
! those points on which the reader's attention ought most to dwell ; 
and, by rendering the tamer parts of his journey as engaging as 
I possible, to keep his mind in sufficient strength and spirits for 
observing the relations of the different objects with one another, 
' and forming to himself a connected notion of the ever changing 
scene. Now there never was a writer endowed with less anima- 
: tion, or with less of a poetic spirit, than Polybius. Though it 
appears that he had himself visited the Alps for the purpose of 
j ascertaining Hannibal's route, yet not one spark of feeling seems 
| to have been awakened in him by the remembrance of that magni- 
| ficent scenery ; and the tameness of his description diminishes the 
influence of its fidelity. Throughout the whole of his work there 
| is perhaps no single passage which fixes itself by its excellence on 
| the reader's memory ; and this one fact is by itself sufficient to 
prove, that the mind of Polybius was not of the very highest order. 
i Great men will leave somewhere or other imprinted on their 
writings the traces of their superior power; and amidst all the 
sobriety of narrative and patient investigation of particular facts 
which testify their sound sense and judgment, there will break forth 
flashes of a comprehensive and magnificent spirit, which show that 
I the peculiar talent of the historian is directed by the master mind 
j of a wise and good man. But it would have been too much for 

I the ordinary condition of humanity, that even Greece should have 
produced a second Thucydides. 
Yet although Polybius was not a historian of the very highest 
class, his merits are still far above mediocrity, and he may be 
J placed amongst the greatest names of the second order. Pie was 
/ sensible, well informed, and impartial ; and he possessed the great 
advantage of a practical familiarity with political and military 
affairs, which sets him far above the mere garrulous literati of the 

z 2 



340 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

roiybius. later ages of the Eoman commonwealth. It is well known that 
he has preserved the true representation of several events of the 
early Eoman history, in which the Eoman annalists seem unani- 
mously to have followed a false and partial statement : and to him 
alone are we indebted for our knowledge of the remarkable treaties 
concluded between Eome and Carthage, at different times, before 
the first Punic war. His impartiality, however, may perhaps be 
suspected when he speaks of the exploits of the family of Scipio ; 
the account of the concluding scene of the second Punic war, and 
the breach of faith imputed to the Carthaginians, have always 
seemed to us, to savour very much of the unfairness of Caesar in 
his Commentaries, and to present a picture widely different from 
that which an unbiassed or unfettered historian would have trans- 
mitted to us. Perhaps, indeed, he copied the memorials of the 
family of Scipio, without being able, from his close connection with 
Scipio iEmilianus, to scrutinise their correctness very closely : and 
the same powerful influence seems to have checked and shackled 
the free course of his sentiments in much of the latter part of his 
history ; nor was it possible for him to write in the language 
which justice required of a series of crimes perpetrated by men 
still living, and who were in the highest stations of power and 
influence at Eome. Yet, if we compare his statements with those 
of the Eoman writers themselves, we shall find that he made every 
effort to discharge his duty faithfully ; and that it is in the cautious 
tone of his history, and not in the perversion of facts, that we may 
trace the unavoidable constraint which circumstances imposed on 
him. The loss of a considerable portion of the sixth book of his 
work, in which he had given some notices of the antiquities of the 
Eoman story, may be viewed with unmixed regret ; and the same 
may be said of the loss of the greatest part of the subsequent 
books, containing the continuation of Hannibal's operations in 
Italy, after the battle of Cannae. In these earlier transactions there 
was less difficulty in expressing his opinions with perfect freedom ; 
nor are we aware of any thing to detract from the high authority 
which his narrative of Hannibal's first campaign in his third book 
has always deservedly enjoyed. 
Exaggerated ^° na ti° n flas ever possessed a literature the real merit of which 
reputation is so disproportionate to its fame as that of Eome. The political 
Literature, greatness of the Eomans gave a general prevalence to their lan- 
guage ; and those who learnt it and spoke it were naturally inclined 
to magnify the excellence of its writers, and to maintain their 
equality with those of Greece. At a later period, when the com- 
munication between the Greek empire, and the west of Europe, 
was almost entirely interrupted, the language and authors of ancient 
Eome were regarded with an almost idolatrous veneration, when 
compared with the half formed dialects and ignorant writers of 



SALLUST. 341 

France, Spain, Italy, and England, during the darkness of the Exaggerated 
middle ages. Habit strengthened this admiration, and caused it to of P Roman 
continue to a period when it became misplaced and unreasonable ; literature. 
just as men have been known to retain in after life the same 
exaggerated estimate of their teacher's talents, which they had 
formed, naturally enough, when contrasting them as boys with 
their own imperfect powers and scanty knowledge. Thus the 
Italians still affected to look up to the poets of Eome as to models 
of excellence, whom it was their greatest glory to imitate, when 
they had in fact already equalled, if not surpassed, them. And 
even at this day, when almost every nation in Europe might justly 
assert the equality of its own literature with that of Home, we are 
still accustomed to talk of the classical writers of Greece and 
Eome, as if the two nations ought to be placed on the same level, 
and the admiration which the one may justly claim, should be 
bestowed in equal measure on the other. From this habit of 
regarding the Greeks and the Eomans as rivals in excellence, it 
followed that for every Greek writer of eminence, some parallel was 
sought for among those of Eome. The fame of Herodotus and 
Thucydides was not therefore to remain unmatched, and two 
Eoman historians were to be found who might be put in compe- 
tition with them. And as the style, rather than the matter of a 
work, was too much the principal object of the criticism of those 
times, Sallust and Livy were selected for this high dignity ; and 
the conciseness of the former was supposed to point him out as the 
rival of Thucydides, while the fluency of the latter suggested the 
comparison between him and Herodotus. 

The merits of Caitjs Sallustius Crispus, 1 though very sallust. 
unequal to the exaltation thus bestowed on them, are yet of a very 

1 Sallust was bora b.c. 86, at Amiternum, in the Sabine territory. He was of 
a plebeian family, and early obtained the office of quaestor. At the age of thirty-six 
he was ejected from the Senate by the censors, on the ostensible ground of 
adultery with Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, and wife of T. Annius Milo; but, not 
improbably, because he had attached himself to the faction of Caesar, to which the 
censors were hostile. In three years he had regained his rank, and became 
tribune of the commons, and afterwards praetor. He accompanied Caesar to 
Africa, and was appointed governor of Numidia, where he seems to have acted 
with injustice and oppression. He returned to Italy, and settled at Rome, where 
he lived in privacy to the age of fifty-two. It was in this retirement that his 
histories were composed. We possess but a small portion of the works of Sallust. 
j Five books of histories are ascribed to him ; and they are supposed to have been a 
I continuation of Sisenna. But it is not unlikely that all Sallust's histories, like 
those extant, were those of detached periods and events, and that they were 
collected into books by the grammarians. Two epistles, " De Republics! 
ordinanda," are ascribed to him ; also a " Declamatio in Ciceronem," in reply to a 
k "Declamatio in Sallustium." Both declamations are supposed to be the work of 
rhetoricians. Quinctilian has twice quoted the declamation of Sallust ; and 
though, it is true, a subsequent forger might have inserted the quotations in his 
work, it is to be remembered that Sallust himself was a rhetorical writer. — 
Editor. 



342 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Sallust. 




Sallust. 



high order. We can only judge of his character by the two 
detached narratives which have come down to us entire ; his 
account of the conspiracy of Catiline, 
and that of the war with Jugurtha. 
Both indeed are strangely tinctured 
with the besetting fault of Eoman 
literature, a laboured and unnatural 
tone, which betrays the forced and 
tardy introduction of a taste for letters 
among the Koman people. In this 
respect the Eoman and French litera- 
ture most strongly resemble one 
another ; and the resemblance belongs 
II i H|l g jjjjl to the similarity of the two people in 

[fHlllfJ Hi) some striking points of national cha- 

racter. Both may be considered as 
eminently deficient in imagination ; 
both were destitute of any natural 
craving for the higher pleasures of 
the mind ; both waited with great patience till external circumstances 
brought the existence of such pleasures to their notice, and made 
them think that it would conduce to their glory to indulge in them. 
But genius will not be courted successfully by those who woo her 
from such unworthy motives : and thus the Augustan age and that 
of Lewis XIV. have produced, for the most part, minds only of the 
second and third order ; who will never hold the same rank with the 
greatest of other ages and other countries. In this manner the histories 
of Sallust seem to have been written as professed literary composi- 
tions ; and the writer appears much more to have studied to make 
them eloquent and striking, that they might tend to his own glory, 
than to have regarded the sober instruction either of his own 
generation or of posterity. Hence the ambitious tone of the intro- 
ductions to both his narratives, which, to say nothing of their 
inconsistency with his own personal character, are ill placed and 
empty ; being written in that style of pretended philosophy which 
runs into generalisation, in order to escape the unwelcome labour 
of informing itself fully with particular facts. Yet, with all this, 
there is much in Sallust which deserves high praise. His impar- 
tiality is greater than we should expect, when we consider his own 
close connection with the faction of Caesar ; he speaks strongly but 
truly of the excessive profligacy and oppression of the aristocracy ; 
yet he does ample justice to the virtues of Metellus and Cato ; 
and his sketch of the character of Sylla seems drawn with entire 
fairness. He has been accused of underrating the merits of Cicero 
in his account of the conspiracy of Catiline ; but this charge must 
have originated from the habit into which men have fallen of 



JULIUS (LESAE. 



343 



estimating Cicero's conduct according to his own excessive pane- saiiust. 
gyrics of it ; compared with which the language of temperate and 
just praise must appear faint and niggardly. It is, on the contrary, 
highly honourable to Sallust that he has never joined in the cry of 
several of his political associates, in condemning the execution of 
Lentulus and his accomplices, as an action at once illegal and 
tyrannical. Such a view of the transaction might have been 
expected from a partisan of Caesar, when we remember that Ceesar 
himself had protested at the time against the execution as contrary 
to law, and had advised the substitution of perpetual imprisonment 
in its room. The value of the work is increased also by its being 
a contemporary history ; so that we have none of that ignorance of 
laws, customs, and various minute particulars, which occur so 
frequently in the compilers of a later age. Nor should the live- 
liness of the style be forgotten ; a quality so excellent, that it 
more than makes amends for some occasional obscurities, and even 
for some affected words and expressions ; inasmuch as it keeps up 
the reader's attention, and thus puts him in a state to study the 
work most profitably. 




Julius Csesar. 



With far less literary pretension, yet with an object equally 
personal, and even more injurious to historical excellence, the 
Commentaries of Caius Julius Cesar 1 will next claim ourc«sar, 



1 Caesar was a voluminous writer. Of his poetry and oratory, notices are given 
in the appropriate portions of this work. Several of his letters are preserved in 
Cicero's correspondence. He wrote a treatise intituled " Anticato," in two 
hooks, in reply to Cicero's panegyric on Cato ; another, M De Ratione Latine 
Loquendi;" " Libri Auspicionum," or " Auguralia," a treatise which, as Caesar was 
pontifex maximus, must have been very curious ; " Apophthegmata," savings 
deemed by Caesar worth preserving, but which, for reasons of his own, Augustus 
suppressed. The Gallic wars were continued by A. Hirtius, or Oppius (for the 
authorship is disputed). The Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars are 
attributed to one of those authors. —Editor, 



344 



THE HISTORIANS OF HOME. 



attention. We have already expressed our astonishment that they 
should ever have gained the reputation of impartiality, or that 
they should be quoted as proofs of the modesty of the writer. 
From the first page to the last they are a studied apology for his 
crimes, and a representation of his talents and victories in the 
most favourable light. From his attack on the Helvetli, down to 
his rebellion against his own country, he describes himself as 
always just and moderate, ever ready to listen to proposals of 
peace from his enemies, and forced to conquer Gaul, and to over- 
throw the constitution of Home in mere self-defence. With much 
more truth, certainly, yet still with evident exaggeration, he 
contrasts his own unwearied activity with the remissness of his 
antagonists ; diminishes his own losses and aggravates theirs ; 
imputes his disasters to accident or treason, while his successes are 
the natural result of his own superior plans, and the courage and 
discipline of his soldiers. To rely on the fairness of such a 
narrative would argue, therefore, but small discernment as to the 
criteria of historical evidence ; and to call Caesar a good historian 
would only show our ignorance of one of the main qualifications 
which history requires. Yet, wherever there is no apparent motive 
for disguising or corrupting the truth, the authority of the 
Commentaries is most excellent. Unlike the honest ignorance of 
some of the writers whom we shall presently notice, and who 
would tell the truth whenever they could, Caesar on the other hand 
enjoyed such superior means of information, and was so active in 
availing himself of them, that it is evident he could tell the truth 
whenever he would. Hence arises the great value of the sketches 
which he has given us of the political state, natural productions, 
manners and customs of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. Owing 
also to the same cause, his geographical and topographical details 
are beautifully clear and accurate ; and his descriptions of military 
movements, of the common usages of the service, of the opera- 
tions of sieges, and the construction of bridges, and engines of 
war, are replete w r ith information of the most unquestionable 
fulness and accuracy. In addition to these merits, his style is 
simple and animated, and formed with such rare ability, as to wear 
the semblance of unadorned soldier-like frankness and candour, 
when the narrative is indeed written with the most artful purposes 
of a consummate intriguer and adventurer. 
Resemblance A similar union of intentional misrepresentations, of deep and 
CcZmS^ e extensive information, and of language at once simple and forcible, 
taries of mav De observed in the Memoirs of the late Emperor Napoleon, 
the Memoirs and serves to heighten the resemblance which existed already in 
Buonaparte °^ ner points between him and Caesar. Both were eminent for an 
unwearied activity of body and mind; both followed the same 
principle in their military operations, anticipating attack, relying on 



livy. 345 

the ascendancy of their name and the terror inspired by the daring Resemblance 
rapidity of their movements, striking always at the vital points of c£2s- he 
their enemy's power, and never losing the frnit of past exertions by tomes of 
checking themselves too soon in their career of victory, and by the Slot™ 
stopping to satisfy themselves with what they had done already, ° f Nap0 ^°£ 
while there yet remained any thing more to do. Both, though 
unsparing of their soldiers' lives, were yet completely masters of 
their affections ; and knew how to awaken in the hearts of their 
immediate attendants an almost enthusiastic regard. Both also 
provoked their ruin by a vanity which found its gratification in 
insulting wantonly the feelings of mankind, and which coveted the 
ostentatious display of power as much as the real possession of it. 
In their literary characters, if the titles which remain to us of 
Caesar's various works imply in him a greater proficiency in Science, 
in critical learning, and in poetry ; yet the Memoirs and Disserta- 

I tions of Napoleon display a much . deeper spirit of reflection on 
military and political subjects, and a much more extensive know- 
ledge on all points of history, geography, and statistics, than we 
can find in the Commentaries of his rival. The narratives of both, 

\ notwithstanding the little strictness of principle which either 
possessed, are yet exceedingly valuable ; because, with all their 
unfairness, there is necessarily a great number of points on which 
nothing was to be gained by a departure from the truth, and on all 
which their great ability and perfect information enable us to rely 
on their statements with implicit confidence. But it is necessary 
that the reader should be constantly on his guard, to observe where 
they can have any interest in misleading 
him ; and on such occasions he should 
recollect that their capability of telling 
the truth becomes absolutely a reason 

I for suspecting their evidence, as it 

i enables them to conceal it more artfully, 
and misrepresent it with greater plau- 
sibility. 

We are now arrived at the Augustan 
age, and we must request the candid 
attention of our readers to the remarks 
which we are about to offer on the 
merits of Livy. We have already 1 on 

I more than one occasion spoken of this "~ Livy. 

I writer in terms which must have sur- 

i prised and perhaps offended his admirers ; and though we do livy, 
not feel the slightest doubt of the justice of our censures, yet it is 
J 

f l History of the Roman Republic, in the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," Intro- 
ductory Dissertation on the Credibility of Early Roman History, pp. 3 — 8. 




346 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Livy. due to an opinion generally entertained to give our reasons for 
altogether dissenting from it. Of the family and personal fortunes 
of Titus Livius, little, we believe, is known. He was born 1 at 
Patavium, or Padua, removed to Eome, where he enjoyed the pro- 
tection and regard of Augustus, and died in his native city, in the 
fourth year of the reign of Tiberius. 2 It is allowed that he was 
never actually engaged in military or political affairs, but that he 
was a mere man of letters ; and it is clear from the very nature of 
his work, that, for almost all the facts contained in it, he must have 
relied upon the writings of others. He appears to have been a 
man of very upright and amiable disposition, and of very good 
natural talents ; but whether it was owing to the wretched educa- 
tion of the times, or to the want of a diffusion of knowledge, and 
a free intercourse with one another among men of different con- 
ditions and employments, scarcely any of the Historians of Rome 
* are of much value, except those who were themselves, in some 

measure, practically acquainted with public business. What the 
rhetoricians could teach him, Livy learned with readiness ; and his 
natural abilities, aided by their instructions, enabled him to write 
with animation, with dignity, and with eloquence ; while his natural 
good feeling, where no prejudice interfered with it, has given an 
honest and amiable character to most of the moral sentiments 
which he expresses. It is said, moreover, that in his account of 
the civil wars, he spoke of the party opposed to Caesar and to 
Augustus with fairness, and even with regard ; not suffering his 
connection with the Emperor to lead him into any unworthy 
servility. In fact, the last Books of his History, which embraced 
the events of his own times, and of those immediately preceding 
them, must have been incomparably more valuable than any part of 
his work which has been preserved to us. Living at Rome, and 
being often with Augustus himself, he must have heard a great 
number of authentic anecdotes, and have gathered various reports 
from the mouths of eye-witnesses, respecting the principal actions 
of the civil wars. Besides this, every man must know something 
of the laws and constitutional forms of his country in his own age ; 
nor can he avoid being acquainted with the manners and habits of 
thinking which are prevalent around him. Many, therefore, may 
write a valuable contemporary history who are quite incompetent to 
the task of exploring the condition and the actions of former times, 
and of describing faithfully a state of manners and of political 
circumstances, which can only be known by long and patient inves- 
tigation. But of this part of his duty, Livy appears to have enter- 
tained a very imperfect notion. Like those painters, who, when 
choosing for their subject some event of the early history of Rome, 

1 b.c. 59. — Editor. 2 a d. 17. — Editor. 



■I 



LIYY. 347 

destroy the truth of their pictures by giving to the buildings the Livy. 
style and splendour of the Augustan age, so has Livy drawn the 
Romans of every period in the costume of his own times ; and the 
senators and plebeians of the first years of the Commonwealth are 
mere copies of those whom he might have almost seen and heard 
himself, in the disorders immediately preceding the rebellion of 
Julius Caesar. Doubtless the character of the nobility and commons 
of Eome underwent as great changes in the course of years as 
those which have taken place in our own country. The Saxon 

. Thanes and Franklins, the Barons and Knights of the fourteenth 
century, the cavaliers and Puritans of the seventeenth, the country 

• gentlemen and monied men of a still later period, all these have 
their own characteristic features, which he who would really write 
a History of England must labour to distinguish and to represent 
with spirit and fidelity ; nor would it be more ridiculous to paint 
the members of a Wittenagemot in the costume of our present 
House of Commons, than to ascribe to them our habits of thinking, 

I or the views, sentiments, and language of a modern statesman. 
The fault of which we have just been speaking, together with 
most of the others with which Livy's History is chargeable, is to 

; be ascribed to the great deficiencies of his knowledge. A history 
compiled mainly from the writings of others, and embracing a space 
of several centuries, was at the time at which he produced it com- 
paratively novel ; and men were not yet aware of the prodigious 

| labour required to execute such a task properly. Livy appears to 
have read no more than the principal chronicles or other narratives 

j which treated of the successive periods of the Roman story, and to 

. have consulted them just as his immediate purpose required. This 
is the simplest explanation of his omitting all mention of the 

| famous treaty concluded between Eome and Carthage in the first 

i year of the Commonwealth, preserved to us, as we have already 
noticed, by Polybius. Livy knew that the work of Polybius related 

■ to the sixth century of Eome, and therefore he never thought of 
: reading it while he was engaged with the events of the third 

■ century. In the same manner he was well acquainted with the 
Origines of Cato, and the History of L. Cincius ; but he seems to 
have been perfectly ignorant of their various legal and antiquarian 
treatises, in which their object was really to discover the truth, and 
not, as in their narratives, to write an engaging and popular story. 

The same cause also will account for his total ignorance of the 
1 real issue of the war between Porsenna and the Romans. He 
followed, no doubt, his ordinary guides, the Chronicles of Fabius, 
Cato, Piso, &c. ; without suspecting the existence of such a docu- 
i ment as the actual Treaty between the two contending parties, 
which even a hundred and fifty years afterwards was accessible to 
Tacitus and the elder Pliny. With this extreme negligence, some- 



348 



THE HISTORIANS OF HOME. 



Livy. thing of wilful blindness was probably mingled. He did not wish 
to scrutinise too narrowly a series of accounts, all of which tended 
to flatter the national pride of his countrymen ; and thus even the 
notorious exaggerations of Valerius Antias, 1 although exposed by 
Livy himself in other parts of his work, are preferred to the 
authority of Polybius, in order to represent the victory of the 
Metaurus as a full compensation for the defeat of Cannae, even in 
the actual numerical loss sustained by the vanquished in the field of 
battle. In other instances we are tempted to ascribe his seeming 
negligence to a physical impossibility of arriving at certainty ; as 
on any other supposition it is almost too monstrous for belief. 
When he quotes two different versions of the Libri lintei from two 
different writers, without telling us which was the true one, 2 we 
must charitably believe that the Libri lintei were no longer in exist- 
ence, rather than suppose Livy to have been so indolent as not to 
have taken the trouble of walking from one part of Rome to 
another, in order to consult them with his own eyes. His intimacy 
with Augustus must have placed within his reach whatever monu- 
ments of ancient times were then remaining throughout Italy ; but 
how few are the instances in which he ever refers to any such 
authority. Much less did he dream of acquiring any of the acces- 
sory knowledge which is so indispensable to an historian. Of 
geography ; of the great general truths of political science, such as 
the ordinary progress of the state of society, and the various 
interests which successively arise to take part in the internal dissen- 
tions of a Commonwealth ; of all the great questions of political 
economy, Livy was careless and ignorant. Born almost within 
sight of the Alps, his knowledge of their topography and scenery 
was utterly vague, and often utterly erroneous ; and the marshes, 
through which Hannibal had to force his way at the commencement 
of his second campaign in Italy, are placed by Livy on the wrong 
side of the Apennines, and ascribed to the floods of the Arno. 
The whole history of the first four hundred years of Eome he has 
related in such a manner as to give it the appearance of being a 
mere fiction ; instead of throwing light upon his subject, he has 
darkened and confused it, so that it requires no small labour to 
extract the truth from the mass of inconsistencies, mistakes, and 
exaggerations with which he has overlaid it. He describes Ser. 

1 We think we cannot be mistaken in fixing upon Valerius Antias as the writer 
whom Livy copied on this occasion. The exaggeration of " fifty-six thousand 
men" slain on the part of the Carthaginians (Livy, lib. xxvii., c. 49), instead of 
the " ten thousand," which is the number given by Polybius, lib. ii., c. 3, can 
surely come from no other than him whom Livy himself describes as " omnium 
rerum immodice numerum augenti," lib. xxxiii., c. 10, and who, in like manner, | 
raises the amount of the Macedonian loss at Cynocephalse from 8000 to 40,000. 
2 Lib. iv., c. 23. 



livy. 349 

,} Tullius as owing his throne at first solely to the election of the Livy. 
c Senate ; and supposes his object in framing his famous Census, to 
j. have been to give a decided preponderance to the aristocratical 
v interest in the Comitia ; at the same time that he represents him as 
offending the Senate by carrying into effect an Agrarian law ; and 
f 5 when it is evident that his unpopularity with the Patricians was 
i .the main cause which enabled his son-in-law to deprive him of his 
) jj]throne and life. In his description of the Census itself, he shows 
Jtthat its tendency was to establish an oligarchy, founded on property, 
p not on birth ; whereas the whole tenor of his subsequent narrative 
manifests that the government was purely aristocratical, and exclu- 
sively in the hands of the Nobles, and not of the rich. Again, in 
ihe Census, we have an account of a military system of arms and of 
.tactics, totally different from those of the legion ; yet, in none of 
: his descriptions of battles, do we find any traces of the institutions . 
enjoined by Ser. Tullius, but very frequent mention of the weapons 
and divisions in use amongst the Eomans in Livy's own age. Now 
( it is true that the system of Ser. Tullius was overthrown imme- 
diately after his death ; and that thus the government, after the 
expulsion of Tarquin, was not an oligarchy, nor were the arms and 
.tactics of the soldiers those of the phalanx ; but neither, again, 
iwere they those of the legion, such as it was in later times ; and 
^the real story of the variations which they underwent, and of the 
constant connection between these changes and the political state of 
jthe Commonwealth (although when we have once discovered it 
(from other sources, we may trace it here and there in Livy's 
narrative), was yet most certainly not understood by himself, nor 
does he seem to have formed any definite notions at all upon the 
subject. 

With such an indistinctness in his views, and with so much 

ignorance, it was not possible that Livy should seize the clue of a 

multitude of crowded events ; that seeing distinctly what was im- 

Jportant and what was not, he should know where to condense his 

^narrative, and where to be minute ; and should place his readers in 

Ja situation from whence they might easily catch the general outline 

of the story, and find it relieved by the shadow into which the less 

interesting parts of the picture had been thrown. We will venture 

to say, that never was the history of a great war more uninstruc- 

tively written than that of the second Punic war by Livy. Amidst 

| the profusion of his details, the reader is at once wearied and con- 

i! fused ; he wanders about like a traveller lost in an immense forest 

of underwood ; thicket succeeds to thicket, and each in itself is gay 

] and beautiful with its flowers and its foliage ; but the scenery has 

1 ino striking features, and the wood has no certain paths, no elevated 

' ground, the eminence of which might serve as a central point 

wherewith to connect and group the other parts of the landscape. 



350 THE HISTORIANS OF HOME. 

Livy. Still more intolerable is the tediousness of the last fifteen remaining 
Books of his History; which, without conveying one particle of 
valuable information as to the internal state of Kome, or of any 
other country, detail with the utmost minuteness every petty action 
of all the uninteresting wars in which the Eomans were involved in 
Spain, Liguria, Greece, and Asia. The same character may be 
given of the ten first Books, which abound in the same minuteness 
of detail, and are equally barren of any clear or sensible views of 
what was important and what was worthless. In these earlier 
Books, indeed, Livy must often, in all probability, have written his 
descriptions from his own imagination, just as Dion Cassius copied 
some of his from the History of Thucydides. Nothing can be 
more impertinent than such pretended embellishments ; and thus 
the famous description of the destruction of Alba, which has so 
often been praised for its elegance, might indeed have been justly 
admired in a novel, but, like all other unauthorised statements, it is 
a sure proof of a shallow mind when inserted in a work which 
aspires to the name of History. 
of the The speeches introduced by Livy, which Quinctilian has so highly 

speeches of ex t Ued, must not be passed unnoticed. It were unfair indeed to 
blame an individual author for adopting the general practice of his 
age ; and it would have required a mind of a very different order 
from Livy's, to have discovered and renounced its absurdity, when 
it was sanctioned by custom, and was one of the readiest means of 
obtaining popularity. But it would argue no small want of judg- 
ment in ourselves, if we were now to consider such idle declamations 
with any feelings of similar admiration. None of them are at all 
characteristic of their pretended speakers, nor of the age to which 
they are ascribed ; but in all, the same author and the same style 
are presented to us, inventing arguments in the true method of the 
exercises of the rhetoricians, and only anxious to dress them up in 
the most harmonious and striking language. We would only 
request those who may think our censure too severe, to read over the 
speech ascribed to Menenius Agrippa, in the second Book of Livy, 
in which he tells the old fable of the belly and the members to the 
dissatisfied Commons, and then compare it with the speech on the 
same subject, put into the mouth of the same speaker by Shakspeare, 
in his play of Coriolanus. If Livy could have inspired his version 
of it with one half of the spirit and character which runs through 
every line of that of the English poet, we might have almost for- 
given him for inserting a speech written by himself, in a work that 
should contain nothing but what was genuine. But Shakspeare, 
though unacquainted with the particular history of Piome, well 
knew the sort of language which a popular orator in rude times 
was likely to address to an exasperated populace ; and this he has 
given with his own inimitable liveliness and power. Livy, with 



LIVY. 351 

very little more knowledge, and infinitely less ability, has written Livy. 
that which cannot possibly be mistaken for the composition of any 
other person than himself. 

If it be asked to what we must attribute the great reputation causes of the 
which Livy has so long enjoyed, the question, we think, is capable un( JJiJ ti()n 
of receiving a very simple answer. History was regarded as a which Livy 
Mterary composition by the critics of the Augustan age, and that has en ^ oyecL 
■which followed it ; and thus the style of a Historian was the point 
■on which his character mainly depended. Quinctilian, when bring- 
ing forward Livy as a rival to Herodotus, extols him merely for the 
'unaffected beauty of his narrative, and the inconceivable eloquence 
of his speeches, — with the same discernment of the real excellences 
of a Historian as he has shown in another passage, where he selects 
the pithy conciseness of Thucydides, and the simple sweetness of 
Herodotus, as the merits which have entitled them to the highest 
> place among writers of History. Yet the language of Quinctilian 
has been echoed by succeeding critics, who have dilated on the 
beauty of Livy's style, and the excellence of his descriptions, as if 
these qualities were sufficient to make him a good Historian. He 
'was, moreover, a writer of the Augustan Age; and the greater 
ipurity of his Latin, as belonging to that golden period, has procured 
for him, in the judgment of Schools and Colleges, a preference over 
Tacitus, who was regarded as a writer of the silver age of Latinity. 
And when we consider how little the world at large has known of 
Greek and Roman literature, and that it has done little more than 
jrepeat the opinions of those who were called the learned, we shall 
; s not wonder that Livy has acquired a great name ; since his pane- 
gyrists have been either those who have not studied him at all, or 
j those who from the different nature of their pursuits, have been 
| quite incapable of appreciating his deficiencies as a Historian, and 
{have dwelt with a natural fondness upon the undeniable beauty of 
,his style. 

It is time, however, that these errors should be dispelled, and 
jthat Livy should be tried in a more just balance, and estimated 
j after a truer standard. So long as he shall be considered a good 
i Historian, it will be an ominous sign of the inattention of men in 
I general to the nature of a Historian's duties, and of the qualifica- 
tions which he ought to possess; it will forbid us to hope that 
History will be studied in a wiser spirit than heretofore, or that, 
(being more judiciously cultivated, it will be made to yield a more 
(beneficial return. But this is a hope that we are loth to relinquish; 
and we would fain do all in our power to promote its accomplish- 
ment. This is our apology for the length to which we have now 
I carried our criticism of Livy ; we know that he is a bad Historian, 
and we would fain effect the same conviction in the minds of others. 
j For this end nothing is necessary but to compare his work in one 



352 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Livy. or two careful perusals with that of Thucydides. There would be 
seen the contrast between what an excellent Historian should be 
and what Livy is : the contrast of perfect knowledge and unwearied 
diligence, with ignorance and carelessness ; of a familiar and 
practical understanding of all points of war and policy, with an 
entire strangeness to them ; of a severe freedom from every prejudice 
and partiality, with a ready acquiescence in any tale that natters 
national vanity and pride. Nor would the comparison of the 
Speeches of the two Histories be less pointed and instructive. In 
the one we should find the genuine and characteristic sentiments 
of the times, the countries, and the parties, to which they are 
ascribed. The principles of morality and policy which were 
avowed or acted upon, and the sort of arguments which might be 
successfully used, are given on an authority known to be deserving 
of the fullest belief. In the other there is nothing genuine, and 
therefore nothing valuable ; the sentiments and arguments are 
merely those of an unpractical man of a later age ; they convey no 
information ; they cannot be treated as developing the character of 
their pretended authors ; they may be " inconceivably eloquent " 
in the eyes of a Jfthetorican, but to him who estimates History 
rightly, it was a waste of time to write them, and, except only so 
far as they are specimens of language, it is a waste of time to read 
them. 

We would not have the above remarks, w r hich we have felt it our 
duty to offer, mistaken or misinterpreted. It is solely to the want 
of merit in Livy in his province as a Historian that they are 
addressed. As an exemplar of purity of diction ; as a consummate 
master of all the rhythmical cadences and harmonious combinations 
of language ; and as a painter of the beautiful forms which the 
richness of his own imagination called up, he may be pronounced 
unrivalled in the whole course of literature. 
Contrast The chronological order of our criticism has now brought us to 

ear7 e and he Diodorus Sicuius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; and we shall 
later Grecian proceed to notice the character of the later Greek Historians 
History^ generally, amongst whom these two writers held a conspicuous 
place. Nothing, perhaps, is more striking than the contrast 
between the early and the later periods of Grecian literature; 
between the extraordinary excellence of Herodotus, Thucydides, 
and Xenophon, and the extraordinary worthlessness of Dionysius 
of Halicarnassus and Appian. We cannot doubt, indeed, but that 
writers of this latter class were sufficiently numerous even before 
the age of Alexander ; and even Herodotus exposes many tales 
which were circulated by some of his contemporaries, and which 
breathe the very same spirit with those to be found so often in the 
pages of later Historians. But happily we have no monuments of 
early Grecian History, except such as are of the highest value ; so 



GRECIAN WRITERS OF HISTORY. 353 

that our impression of the period which produced them is naturally contrast 
somewhat more favourable than the reality. Afterwards there ^r^and* 16 
appeared no revival of their excellences ; and as the circumstances later Grecian 
of the times became more unfriendly to the formation of great HStory.° f 
minds, those who under better culture might have risen above 
mediocrity, now sank beneath it ; and those who might have been 
awed into silence by the splendour of contemporary genius, were 
( encouraged to essay their feeble voices amidst the universal weak- 
ness of all around them. The times, we have said, were unfavour- 
able to the formation of great minds ; not so much from any direct 
restraints imposed upon literature by the government (for of this 
there seems to have been but little during the reign of Augustus), 
but from the removal of those opportunities of practical discipline 
to the character, which in the free States of antiquity counter- 
j balanced, in some measure, the want of education and the diffi- 
culties of obtaining knowledge. The army was becoming a distinct 



Commonwealths of Greece and Eome, to learn the duties and 



profession ; and every citizen was no longer obliged, as in the 



acquire the experience of a practical soldier. Those restless political 
intrigues, and those better and more honourable calls for action, 
] which self-defence, or the public good, held out so often to the 
citizens of the little Eepublics of an earlier Age, were now crushed 
and silenced ; and the welfare of the great national society to which 
he belonged was now to every man the object only of an occasional 
' and impotent wish, instead of a daily principle of active exertion. 
Trade and navigation were uncongenial to the character of the 
Eomans, and were thus depressed in public estimation ; so that 
they held a distinct and subordinate place, and could not operate 
I with much effect on the general mass of society. Doubtless the 
j field of literature was open ; and the patronage of the Augustan 
. Age may be thought eminently favourable to its improvement. But 
the ancient notions of literature were very different from those of 
I the present age. The original names bestowed on places of literary 
study, crxoXrj, yvfivaa-Lov, and Liidus literarius, names so improperly 
j applied in the eyes of modern schoolboys, express very strikingly 
i the feelings of the Greeks and Eomans concerning them. Books 
: were their relaxation from the severer business of life ; and hence, 
\ as is well known, a taste for letters was regarded with jealousy, at 
an earlier period of the Eoman History, as the mark of an indolent 
j and trifling mind. But something of the original evil of looking to 
i literature chiefly as to an amusement, has occasioned at once the 
omissions and the faults with which that of the ancients is charge- 
, able. In the reign of Augustus there was a great demand for 
j Poetry, for Oratorical compositions, for Criticism, and for enter- 
taining narrative ; but little or none for Political Economy, for 
legitimate History, for Experimental or Moral Philosophy. There 
[r. l.] a' a 



354 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Contrast was nothing then in the state of the public taste to encourage a 
eariy e and the writer to attempt works of laborious research, and of deep and 
later Grecian extensive thought and knowledge. Fame and profit were to be 
History. gained at an easier rate by cultivating the more flowery paths of 
literature ; and talents are so independent of wisdom that, where 
fame and profit invite them, they are generally sure to direct their 
efforts. Nor must we forget the scarcity of books amongst the 
causes which account for the badness of the greater part of ancient 
History. It was absolutely impossible for many authors to procure 
the knowledge which they needed ; books could not be purchased, 
on account of the dearness of their price, and they could be con- 
sulted oftentimes only in the public libraries of large cities, at a 
considerable distance, perhaps, from the spot of the writer's 
residence. Nor even to those living at Rome itself, could a public 
library ever supply the place of a private one. Indolence would 
often tempt a writer to rest satisfied with an imperfect recollection 
of a passage, rather than make the exertion of going to another 
quarter of the city to ascertain its purport exactly ; and, above all, 
he who reads in a public library reads for a particular object, but 
does not and cannot indulge in that quiet and leisurely and extensive 
study which is only to be enjoyed at home, and which alone fills 
the mind with abundant and well-digested knowledge. It was not, 
therefore, to be expected that a Greek, coming to Eome in the hope 
of arriving at wealth and renown by his literary talents, should 
have been able or willing to make himself a really good Historian. 
Instead of the arduous task of storing himself with all sorts of 
knowledge, political, geographical, and military — instead of the 
slow and unostentatious labour of reading and digesting various 
authorities, sifting their value, and extracting from them what was 
most excellent — a simpler and easier path lay before him, which 
would lead him far more surely and speedily to the accomplishment 
of his objects. To cultivate his style with assiduity, so as to 
render his narrative agreeable ; to exercise himself in the lessons 
taught him in the Schools of Rhetoric, so as to diversify his story 
with ingenious and eloquent Orations ; to learn how to give a 
striking and novel appearance to the old common-places of morality, 
which were to be interspersed from time to time ; and to express 
on all occasions a fitting admiration and reverence for the glory 
and greatness of Rome : these were methods better adapted than 
any others to lead an author to popularity and patronage, and, 
therefore, independently of their own natural attractions, they were 
sure to be most generally practised. 
Dionysius of We must not be understood to mean that the operation of these 
Haiicar- causes was always uniform : or that there may not have been many 
exceptions to that which we still believe to have been the general 
rule. But with regard to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, we 



DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS. 



355 



Dionysius of 
Halicar- 




i 



Halicarnassus. 

think that Ms deficiencies were of a nature which no change of 
circumstances could have removed. He appears not to have pos- 
sessed any original capacity, which might have been improved by 
culture or experience, but a natural weakness of judgment and 
want of vigour, which must always have kept him far below 
mediocrity as a Historian. He is prolix, ignorant of political and 
military matters, flagrantly partial, and incompetent to apprehend 
the real state, manners, and character of the people of whom he 
wrote. The eloquence, which is the redeeming charm of Livy's 
pages, is uniformly a stranger to those of Dionysius ; the Speeches 
which, considered merely as rhetorical compositions, are in Livy so 
forcible and beautiful, are in Dionysius utterly vapid. He tells us 
in his preface that he spent two-and-twenty years in Koine, and 
that having learned the Latin language, and gained an acquaintance 
with the Homan writers, he employed the whole of this period in 
acquiring the knowledge necessary for his History. This he derived, 
as he tells us, partly from the personal communications of those 
eminent for their information, and partly from the approved 
Chronicles of M. Cato, Q.. Fabius, Valerius Antias, Licinius Macer, 
JElius Tubero, Gellius, Piso, and others. To say nothing of the 
judgment evinced in this classification of authorities, it is observable 
that he does not make any mention of the legal and antiquarian 
dissertations of Cato and Cincius, of which we have already spoken, 
but merely of their Chronicles ; having, probably, like Livy, 
neglected their other works from which so much more of valuable 

a a 2 



356 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Diodorus 
Siculus. 



Dkmysiusof information was to be drawn. The tenour of his narrative makes 
na^us!" it probable that those learned Romans, who assisted his researches, 
were of that class who in simplicity believed, or from interested 
motives extolled, the private memoirs of the great families of Borne ; 
and who sought to natter the vanity of their patrons by the 
invention of fabulous pedigrees, such as those of Cluentius and 
Memmius, whose pretended ancestors were Cloanthus and Mnestheus, 
the companions of iEneas. 

The part of the history of Diodorus Siculus which remains to 
us enters but little upon the affairs of Eome. Yet his account of 
the first invasion of the Gauls is curious, inasmuch as he agrees 
with Polybius in representing the ransom demanded by the Gauls 
as actually paid ; and places the pretended victory obtained over 
them by Camillus some months later than their evacuation of the 
Eoman territory. It is also to a fragment of Diodorus that we 
are indebted for the discovery of the manner in which the story 
about the death of Eegulus originated, and for the fact, that the 
cruelties said to have been committed upon him by the Cartha- 
ginians were in reality practised by his own sons upon some 
Carthaginian prisoners whom the Senate had put into their custody. 
Besides these passages, we find in Diodorus a clear and probable 
account of the revolt of the slaves in Sicily, in the early part of 
the seventh century of Eome ; and a remarkable narrative of an 
insurrection excited by an insolent member of the Equestrian 
Order, T. Minucius. It is pleasing to find that he took great pains 
to acquire by travelling a correct knowledge of the different 
countries described in his work ; and there is a general tone of 
honesty and fairness pervading his history, which shows that he 
was always inclined to speak the truth whenever he could discover 
it. His error lay in his design of writing a universal history ; an 
undertaking, no doubt, exceedingly grand and attractive, but 
utterly incompatible with the limited length of human life, and 
our physical capabilities of acquiring knowledge. By thus attempt- 
ing to do too much, he has done nothing as perfectly as he other- 
wise might have done it ; nor is he one of those historians on 
whose information we can rely with entire confidence, or who, by 
the excellence of his work, has introduced any striking improve- 
ments into history. 

The two writers whom we have last mentioned both flourished 
during the reign of Augustus. Instead, however, of observing any 
exact chronological order, we shall next speak of the two other 
Greek historians who have written most at large on Eoman affairs, 
Appian and Dion Cassius. Appianus was a native of Alexandria, 
and lived during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the elder 
Antoninus. He spent some time at Eome, where he followed the 
profession of an advocate in the Imperial Courts, and was after- 



Appian. 



APPIAN. DION CASSIUS. 357 

wards made Procurator of Egypt. In the plan of his history he Appian. 
has adopted a geographical division of his subject, and has 
attempted to trace the course of events by which the several 
provinces successively became subject to Eome; after the com- 
pletion of this part of his task, he added the History of the Civil 
Wars of Eome, from the first disturbances occasioned by Tib. 
Gracchus to the battle of Actium, and the establishment of the 
imperial power ; concluding the whole with a supplementary book, 
in which he gave an account of the revenue derived from the several 
parts of the empire, and of the military and naval force which was 
kept up in his own time. Unfortunately this last book, which, 
from his official situation, was likely to contain much valuable 
matter, has entirely perished, together with large portions of the 
rest of his work ; we still retain, however, besides some consider- 
able fragments, one entire book on the History of Spain, another 
on that of Syria, a third on that of Illyria, two on the Punic wars, 
one on the long contest with Mithridates, and five on the civil wars 
of Eome, which carry down the story of them as far as the murder 
of Sex. Pompeius, u. c. 719. Thus the whole of Appian' s existing 
history is necessarily a compilation from the writings of others, 
without any mixture of information gained from his own personal 
inquiries or experience. Such a work, when composed by a man 
of low understanding and scanty knowledge, is as worthless as any 
history can be, and this is the character which we are obliged to 
bestow on the history of Appian. It is true, that amidst the 
dearth of better information, even the writings of such an author 
as this are to a certain degree valuable, as they contain some facts 
which are not to be found elsewhere. We are indebted to him for 
' a translation of the proclamation issued by the Triumvirs to 
' announce and to justify their dreadful proscription ; and also for 
some curious anecdotes of the proscription itself. 

Dion Cassius was a native of Nicaea in Bithynia, 1 and flourished Dion 
during the latter part of the second, and the first thirty or forty years Casslus - 
of the third century of the Christian era. His father was a man of 
some consideration, who had been intrusted with the command of 
the province of Dalmatia, 2 and had enjoyed the dignity of Consul 
in the last year but one of the reign of Commodus. Dion Cassius 
himself practised for some time as an advocate at Eome ; he was 
raised to the praetorship by the Emperor Pertinax, 3 and appears to 
1 have been treated with kindness by the Emperor Septimius Severus. 
It was in the reign of this latter prince that he commenced the 
compilation of his history ; and his own account of the motives 
which induced him to undertake it is too curious to be omitted. 4 



1 Dion Cassius, lxxv. p. 857. edit. Leunclav. 

2 Ibid, xlix. p. 413. Cassiodorus, Chronicon. 

3 Dion Cassius, lxxiii. p. 835. 4 Ibid. p. 828. 



358 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Dion He had written and published a small work on the subject of the 

Cassius. dreams and prodigies which had encouraged Severus to expect to 
obtain the throne ; and he sent a copy of it to Severus, who, after 
having read it, returned a very nattering written acknowledgment 
to the author. " It was towards evening," says Dion, " when 
I received this answer, and I soon retired to rest ; during my sleep 
a divine power gave me a charge to compose a history ; and 
accordingly I wrote that part (namely, the Life of Commodus) 
which the reader has just now completed. When I found that this 
was generally approved of, and that Severus himself expressed 
himself satisfied with it, I conceived the wish to compile an entire 
history of the affairs of Rome, and to embody in this larger work 
the portion which I had already written, that I might transmit to 
posterity, in one continuous narrative, the whole history from the 
first beginning to as late a period as my lot would allow me to 
continue it." He then adds, that he employed ten years in collect- 
ing his materials, and twelve more in the composition of his work, 
residing for that purpose chiefly at Capua, 1 as a delightful situation 
in which he might enjoy uninterrupted leisure. But when Alex- 
ander Severus became emperor, he was called forward into public 
life ; was twice appointed consul, 2 the second time as the colleague 
of the emperor himself; and was successively intrusted with the 
governments of Africa, Dalmatia, and Pannonia. In this last 
situation he rendered himself so odious to the soldiers, by the 
strict discipline which he enforced among them, that'ln the mutiny 
in which Ulpian, the Praetorian Prefect, so well known for his fame 
as a lawyer, was murdered at Eome, the mutineers demanded of 
the emperor that Dion Cassius should in like manner be surren- 
dered to their vengeance. This request was steadily rejected ; yet 
when Dion was afterwards chosen by Alexander Severus as his 
colleague in the consulship, he was advised by his sovereign to 
spend his term of office at a distance from Home, lest his appear- 
ance in public, in the capacity of a magistrate, might dangerously 
irritate the minds of the soldiers. The latter years of his life were 
passed in his native country Bithynia, agreeably, he tells us, to an 
intimation of his destiny, which he once received in a dream, when 
a vision commanded him to inscribe on the last page of his history 
two lines from Homer, describing the removal of Hector from the 
battle by the care of Jupiter, and his escape " from the dust, and 
from the slaughter, and from the blood, and from the tumult." 

In reviewing the history of Dion Cassius, recollecting at the 
same time his account of the manner in which he was led to write 
it, we cannot but regret that he, like so many others, should have 
been ignorant, according to the expression of Hesiod, " how much 
the half is better than the whole." Had he been contented with 

1 Dion Cassius, lxxvi., p. 860. 2 Ibid, lxxx., p. 917. 



DIOX CASSIUS. 359 

what he at first accomplished, the history of the reign of Commodus Dion 
— or had he only carried on the narrative from that period through Cassms - 
the subsequent events of his own times — he would have deserved an 
honourable place amongst impartial and well-informed contemporary 
historians. But the unfortunate desire of forming a complete 
work, and of giving to the world an entire body of Roman history, 
led him to go over ground of which he wanted an adequate know- 
ledge, and to repeat, without improving, a story which had been 
often told before. He was too little acquainted with the laws and 
constitutions of the old commonwealth to describe them accurately, 
or to trace with a clear and strong pencil the successive parties 
which arose, and the varying characters which they assumed at 
different periods. The defects of his knowledge he attempted to 
compensate by borrowing morsels of description from some ancient 
historian, when he wished to draw a striking picture of any event ; 
or by introducing long speeehes of his own composition, such as 
those which he ascribes to M. Antonius at the funeral of Caesar ; 
to Cicero and Q. Fufius Caienus in the Senate ; and to Maecenas 
and Agrippa, when they are supposed to advise Augustus, the one 
to retain, and the other to resign, his absolute power. In short, 
the early part of his history is as unsatisfactory as the latter books 
are really valuable ; so true is it, that a very ordinary man may be 
a useful historian of the events of his own times ; but that the 
story of a remote period can only be profitably told by one of inde- 
fatigable industry and most extensive knowledge — one whose powers 
of weighing evidence, of selecting what is most important amongst 
ithe facts presented to him, and of placing it in the clearest and most 
striking light, are commensurate with his diligence and learning. 
In all the four writers whom we have last noticed, we may 
lobserve one prevailing fault besetting them, though not in an 
equal degree ; namely, an extreme wordiness both in their narra- 
tives and their remarks. The same fault is a source of offence 
in the most eminent of the modern Italian historians, such as 
Guicciardini and Davila; and in both cases it has arisen from the 
isame cause. Both the Greek and Italian languages are so harmo- 
nious, and so naturally eloquent, that they conceal in some measure 
from the eyes of the writer the poverty of his thoughts, or the 
little substantial good which he is communicating, amidst the 
;luxuriance of his beautiful sentences. Thus he is tempted to run 
jon without restraint, and to be careless of the sterling value of his 
materials, when they are so easily susceptible of the most delicate 
polish, and can hardly fail to wear an ornamental appearance. 
Such languages are productive of serious evils to ordinary writers. 
/They seem to derive from them a power far beyond their own 
nature, and thus they are exposed to the usual fate of those who 
are raised to an elevation which they are unfit to occupy ; nor can 



360 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Velleius 
Paterculus. 



it be doubted, we think, that this cause has greatly contributed to 
the extraordinary prolixity and emptiness of the second and third 
rate writers of Greece and modern Italy. 

In resuming again the chronological order of our review, and 
proceeding to notice the Eoman historians subsequent to Livy, the 
historical sketch of Velleius Paterculus next claims our atten- 
tion. 1 His father had been employed in the army of Tiberius 
Caesar in Germany during the reign of Augustus, and he himself 
served under the same commander in different capacities for the 
space of nine years; and on the accession of Tiberius to the 
imperial throne, he was one of the first persons nominated by him 
to be elected to the office of Praetor. Under these circumstances, 
and either enjoying, perhaps, or expecting, still greater marks of 
favour, it is natural that he should speak of Tiberius, and of his 
minister, Sejanus, in language very unlike that in which more 
impartial historians have described them. By the terms, too, in 
which he expresses himself with regard to Brutus and Cassius, we 
are reminded of that increased courtliness which marked the writers 
of Imperial Rome ; and we are led to recollect the story of 
Cremutius Cordus, who was tried for treason, because in a history 
of the civil wars he had mentioned the conspirators against Caesar 
with admiration. But there is more, perhaps, in this of apparent 
than of real partiality ; it was an undisturbed practice to call 
Brutus and Cassius parricides ; and such terms were a necessary 
passport to secure the unmolested circulation of a historian's work. 
It does not seem to us, that Paterculus is guilty of that unfairness 
which we have noted in the writings of Caesar; who, seldom 
indulging in reproachful epithets against his antagonists, contrives, 
by his representation of the facts, to produce a much stronger 
impression against them than he could have created in any other 
manner ; and who, nevertheless, at the same time, has gained credit 
for his pretended moderation and candour. Paterculus, on the 
contrary, does not misrepresent the facts ; and if we rub off the 
exterior coating of false colouring with which he has a little 
disguised their surface, we shall find them in substance mostly 
unchanged and uninjured. His work is so mere an outline that it 
hardly deserves the name of history ; yet, considered as a sketch, it 
is drawn with great force and judgment. His enumeration of the 
different Eoman colonies, with the dates at which they were 
respectively founded, is conceived in a spirit far above most of the 
writers whom we have been reviewing ; it is a piece of gratuitous 
information which he must have collected himself, without finding 
it in the books from which he formed his narrative ; whereas Livy 
and Dionysius, and Dion Cassius and Appian, generally content 



1 Paterculus was born about b.c. 19, and was, probably, put to death in a.d. 31, 
among the friends of Sejanus. — Editor. 



VELLEIUS PATERCULUS. TACITUS. 



361 



themselves with copying from the chronicles of their predecessors, veiieius 
and never dream of communicating any information which they do Paterc u3, 
not find made ready for their hands. It is, however, a favourable 
circumstance for the fame of Paterculus, that the fate of his work 
has been exactly the reverse of that of Livy ; the latter part, which 
treats of events nearer his own age, has been preserved, while the 
account of the early history of Kome from Komulus to the second 
Macedonian war has been entirely lost. Had this been preserved, 
we might have found him as indiscriminate a copyist of foolish and 
ignorant authorities as any of his contemporaries ; but as it is, we 
cannot compare him with Livy, where Livy probably was most 
excellent ; and his superiority over Appian and Dion Cassius is 
obtained with little difficulty, not only on account of his earlier 
date and his greater ability, but because as a Roman he had so 

] much more familiar a knowledge of the names, customs, laws, and 
family history of his countrymen, and is free therefore from those 

I mistakes which the Greek writers of Roman history, with the 
exception of Polybius, are continually committing. 

At length we have arrived at the greatest of the Roman histo- Tac i tuSt 
rians, and one of the most eminent among those of every age and 
nation, Caius Cornelius Tacitus. 1 He was born about the 
year of Rome 810, a.d. 57, about 

! three-and-forty years after the death 

i of Augustus. His father is supposed 

i to have been the same ' Cornelius 

i Tacitus whom Pliny 2 describes as 

t belonging to the Equestrian Order, 

, and Procurator of the Belgian Gaul. 

1 At an early age he applied himself 

\ to the study of eloquence, with a 

j view to obtain distinction as an 

; advocate, the sole capacity in which 

I an orator might then display his 

5 talents ; and, as he was of a rank 
to aspire to political honours, he 
served some campaigns in the army, 
as the necessary qualification required of every candidate for a magis- 

j tracy. When he was only one-and-twenty years old, he married the 

j daughter of the famous Cn. Julius Agricola; he was one of the 

j praetors ten years afterwards; 3 and nine years later, u.c. 850, in 




Tacitus. 



1 We have borrowed this sketch of the Biography of Tacitus from Brotier's 
Preface to that Historian, having merely verified his statements by referring 
ourselves to the authorities which he has quoted. 

2 Histor. Natural, vii. 16. 

3 Tacitus, Annal. xi., 11. [He was also one of the quiudecemviri of the 
Ludi Seculares. — Editor.] 



362 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Tacitus. the first year of the reign of Nerva, he was appointed to the dignity 
of Consul. l Once after this period his name is mentioned, 2 
together with that of the younger Pliny, as the joint and successful 
accusers of Marius Priscus, Proconsul of Africa, for multiplied acts 
of cruelty and corruption in his Province. But the later years of 
his life seem mostly to have been devoted to the composition of 
his Histories ; a labour in which he was interrupted by a premature 
death, apparently before the close of the reign of Trajan. In point 
of external advantages, therefore, no Eoman had hitherto been so 
well fitted for the office of a historian. Practically acquainted with 
civil and military affairs, gifted with a fair fortune, enjoying the 
highest public honours, with ample and undisturbed leisure, and 
writing in the reign of a sovereign who had no desire to see the 
truth concealed or corrupted, he had all opportunities of acquiring 
information, without any temptation to forsake his duty as an his- 
torian from motives of hope or fear ; and it could only be a question 
whether his own moral and intellectual qualities were such as 
worthily to correspond with the favours conferred on him by fortune. 
These qualities were undoubtedly of a very high order. He 
observes a fair and temperate tone in his censures even of the worst 
characters, and does not allow himself to be hurried away by the 
feelings of moral indignation which could not but arise within him, 
when contemplating such a tissue of varir -^s crimes as that which 
it was his business to record. His remarks are always striking, 
mostly just, and often profound ; his narrative is clear, sensible, and 
animated ; he communicates information on subjects to which the 
thread of his story does not of necessity lead him, and on which a 
mere compiler, who collects at the moment his knowledge for the 
task which he has in hand, can never afford to venture. Of this 
nature is the valuable sketch of the distribution of the military force 
of the empire, and of the state of the government and of the people, 
which occurs at the beginning of the fourth Book of his Annals. 
Such also is the summary view of the progress of the Koman legis- 
lation in the third Book of the same work. His delineations of 
characters are lively and apparently just ; his sentiments on political 
questions fair and judicious. His authority with regard to all points 
of Ptoman History is highly valuable, and for those times with which 
he is more immediately concerned, we could hardly desire a better 
guide. His faults are to be ascribed to such causes as we have 
already noticed as injurious to ancient literature. Not even Tacitus 
could overcome the habit of regarding history as a literary composi- 
tion, intended to satisfy the expectations of professed critics, and to 
promote the literary fame of the writer. We see continually symp- 
toms of the aycdviafxa is to Trapaxprjp-a dicoveiv; the composition 

1 Pliny, Epist. ii., 1. 2 Ibid. ep. 11. 



TACITUS. 363 

written with effort, in the hope of gaining a prize. Hence the Tacitus. 

excessive ornament of the language ; and hence also those idle 

specimens of rhetoric, which are introduced as the pretended speeches 

of different persons mentioned in the history. We remember that 

Whitaker, in some one of his works, we believe in his Review of 

Gibbon, endeavours to discredit the authority of Tacitus as an 

historian, because he puts a speech into the mouth of the Emperor 

Claudius, on a solemn occasion, very different from that which he 

actually delivered. The pretended speech is to be found in the 

eleventh Book of the Annals, and is said to have been spoken in the 

Senate, when the inhabitants of Transalpine Gaul petitioned to be 

rendered eligible to the highest public offices at Eome. Now, it so 

happens, that a copy of the real speech of Claudius, engraved on a 

i large brazen plate, was discovered at Lyons in the year 1528 ; and 

we are thus enabled to ascertain exactly how much of the pretended 

version of it given by Tacitus is genuine. Whitaker argues that a 

historian who would so audaciously insert a fictitious speech of his 

own composition into his history, and at the same time represent it 

1 as having been actually spoken, can no longer be relied on with 

confidence in any part of his work, although w r e may not have the 

means of proving him to be in error. Brotier, on the other hand, 

the learned editor of Tacitus, defends his author in the true spirit 

of an ancient critic, by saying that the original speech is " old 

fashioned, weak, and little calculated to convince its hearers ; so 

\ that it was the business of Tacitus to make something that should 

be more worthy of the occasion, the place, and the majesty of the 

Emperor." l It is tiresome to reflect how much of this kind of 

silliness has been written by classical editors, commentators, and 

I critics ; and how long it has obstructed the progress of sound ideas 

I on the subject of ancient literature. But Whitaker is not to be 

listened to when he infers that Tacitus is not to be trusted in his 

, account of facts, because he has ascribed to Claudius a speech which 

was never spoken. The introduction of fictitious speeches was one 

! of the regular ornaments of ancient history, on which much of the 

i reputation of the author depended. It was never pretended that 

they were genuine, nor was any reader likely to be so simple as to 

mistake them for such ; so that if the real speech of Claudius had 

been familiar to every person in Eome, Tacitus would never have 

; been blamed for substituting in its place one of his own invention, 

! but would rather perhaps have been censured for want of original 

1 talent if he had merely inserted in his history a faithful copy of it. 

In the same manner, when we read the speech of Galgacus, in the 

, Life of Agricola, no one would be so weak as to suppose that any 

r Roman had taken notes of the Celtic original, and had transmitted 

1 Notae et Emendat. ad lib. xi., c. 24. Annal.C. Corn. Tacit. 



364 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Tacitus. to Rome a translation of it ; but at the same time it would be hard 
to infer that Tacitus had allowed himself to describe from his own 
imagination the facts of the Caledonian war. Our objection to these 
fictitious speeches is simply that they are a waste of paper ; that 
they are a mere impertinence, occupying a space in the history, and 
employing a portion of the writer's time and attention, which ought 
to have been devoted to something better. But the spirit which 
could tolerate or demand that such tawdry ornaments as these 
should be hung upon the plain magnificence of history, was too 
closely connected with another and a worse tendency — that of 
shrinking from the full amount of labour which a conscientious his- 
torian should undergo, and of reporting idle tales with respect to 
foreign nations, rather than consulting their own accounts of them- 
selves. We now allude to that passage in Tacitus which describes 
the origin and early history of the Jews ; it certainly betrays much 
ignorance or much indolence that he should have contented himself 
with retailing the vague and contradictory reports of foreigners, 
when he might so easily have learnt their true history, either from 
the work of Josephus, or from their original historians themselves, 
whose writings, translated into the Greek language, were, as we 
know, very generally read throughout a considerable part of the 
empire. It would not be fair to attach any particular blame to 
Tacitus for a fault of this nature, when it was one which the habits 
and feelings of his times so largely encouraged ; but it shows the 
radical defects in the views of history entertained by the Romans, 
when a man of such rare accomplishments as Tacitus could not 
altogether emancipate himself from their influence. 
The The prevailing faults which marked the historians of these times 

Biographers. are i Q De observed also in the biographers. Three writers of this 
class will demand a brief notice — Cornelius Nepos, Suetonius, and 
Plutarch. Cornelius Nepos, l who flourished in the Augustan 
age, and was familiarly acquainted with Cicero and Atticus, has left 
us a sketch of the life of the latter, which possesses great value; 
inasmuch as it is the account of an eminent and amiable man, 
written by a contemporary and a friend. We wish that we had 
many such memoirs of distinguished Eomans, as no species of 
writing more effectually conveys a full and lively knowledge of the 
state of society and opinion at any given period. How much 
clearer and more instructive, for example, are the notions of the 
XVIIIth century which we derive from BoswelTs Life of Johnson, 

1 What we possess of Cornelius Nepos is only a small portion of his works, if, 
indeed, the lives be his, which, with the exception of that of Atticus, may be 
questioned. He wrote Chronica, apparently an epitome of universal history ; 
Exempla ; De Viris Illustribus, probably the work which we possess ; Epistolce 
ad Ciceronem ; Be Historkis (at least, if he is the author of the life of Dion) ; 
and poems. — Editor. 



Cornelius 
Nepos. 




PLUTARCH. — SUETONIUS. 365 

than from Smollett's History of England ; and the instance is a Cornelius 
strong one, as no one would place the talents of Boswell within Nepos ' 
many degrees of those of the author of Roderick Random and 
Rumphrey Clinker. 

But the praise which we have bestowed on the biographer of 
Atticus can by no means be extended to the other two writers whom 
we have classed with him. Plutakch, a native of Chseronea, in Plutarch. 
Bceotia, was probably some few years 
older than Tacitus, but is mentioned as 
nourishing, like him, during the reign 
of Trajan. He was much respected 
by the Emperor, and received from 
him, according to Suidas, the rank of 
Consul, with an extraordinary authority 
over all other magistrates in Illyria. 
He is said to have died in his native 
city, during the reign of Antoninus 
Pius. With his moral works we have 
at present no concern ; and his Lives 
are so generally known by means of 
translations, even to those who are 
unacquainted with the original, that piutaxch 

it may seem superfluous to offer any 

observations upon them. It is sufficient to remark that they 
are not contemporary biography ; and must, therefore, have been 
compiled from books, and not written from personal knowledge. 
And as far as they touch upon the province of history, we may 
expect to find in them, in an aggravated degree, those same faults 
of imperfect information and carelessness, which we have noticed as 
characterising the historians of the same period. With regard to 
the more purely biographical part of them, Plutarch does not appear 
to have exercised a very nice discrimination in his selection of anec- 
dotes ; and many which he reports are improbable ; occasionally, 
however, he has fallen in with authorities of a higher kind, and we 
are then indebted to him for preserving to us some very curious and 
important particulars. He has also the great merit of frequently 
mentioning the name of the writer from whom he is copying his 
narrative ; and we are thus enabled to judge for ourselves of the 
degree of confidence which we should repose in him. 

The third biographer whom we proposed to notice was C. Sue- Suetonius. 
tonius Tranquillus. 1 He also flourished in the reigns of Trajan 

1 Suetonius was " adolescens " twenty years after Nero's death (Suet. Nero, 57). 
He must, therefore, have been born about the time of that event, a.d. 68. His 
father, Suetonius Lcnis, was tribune of the 13th legion ; but the son seems to 
have had a distaste for public life in every way, and to have been solely devoted 
to literary pursuits. He was the intimate friend of the younger Pliny, who 



. 



366 



THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



Suetonius, and Adrian, and was familiarly acquainted with the younger Pliny. 
He was the author of several works, none of which, however, have 
reached posterity, except the Lives of the twelve Casars, and two 
short books containing Sketches of the Lives of the most eminent 
Philologists and Rhetoricians. In his biography of the Caesars, his 
narrative of their actions is exceedingly summary, and the largest 
space is devoted to a number of miscellaneous particulars, illustra- 
tive of their characters and habits. Like Plutarch, he seems to 
have collected these from several very different authorities ; but he 
had one great advantage over the Greek biographer in the superior 
knowledge which he naturally possessed of the laws and usages of 
the Eomans ; so that on those subjects his testimony is much more 
trustworthy. We do not see any grounds for the charge of malig- 
nity which has been sometimes brought against him : on the 
contrary, he appears to us to have recorded the virtues and vices of 
the Caesars with great impartiality ; and certainly it is not the fault 
of Suetonius, if their vices appear to preponderate. 

Little need be said of the few remaining historians, if so they 
may be called, who have contributed something to our knowledge 

Fiorus. of the affairs of Eome. L. Annjeus Plorus, who lived in the 
reign of Trajan, has left us a series of detached sketches of the 
different wars and civil dissensions in which the Eomans were 
engaged from the days of Eomulus to those of Augustus. Such 
a work is a mere help to the memory rather than a history ; and is 
scarcely a fitter subject for criticism than a chronological table of 
events. 1 

recommended his learning and amiable qualities to the notice of Trajan, and 
requested the Emperor to grant his friend the "jus trium liberorum," which 
solicitation was complied with. The correspondence is extant, Plin. Epist. x., 
95,96. Suetonius was " magister epistolarum " to the Emperor Hadrian. Of 
this office he was deprived on the same ground as that which caused the deprivation 
of many other officials, an alleged intimacy, not perhaps criminal, but inconsistent, 
with the Emperor's wife Sabina, during her husband's absence in Britain. "We 
possess but a small portion of the writings of Suetonius. Besides his lives of the 
Caesars, his books on the Grammarians and the Rhetoricians, his life of Terence (also, 
as we have seen, attributed to Donatus), and those of Horace, Persius, Lucian, 
Juvenal, and Pliny the Elder, all which are extant ; he wrote De Ludis Grcecorum, 
De Spectaculis et Certaminibus Romanorum, De Anno Romano, De Notts, De 
Ciceronis Republicd, De Nominibus Propriis, De Generibus Vestium, De 
Vocibus Mali Ominis, De Roma Ejusque Institutis et Moribus, Histories 
Ccesarum, Stemma Illustrium Romanorum, De Regibus, De Institutione 
Officiorum, De Rebus Variis, &c, all of which, except a few fragments, are lost. 
— Editor. 

1 Of the biography of Fiorus nothing is known with any certainty. From the 
contemptuous language of Dr. Arnold, a reader unacquainted with Fiorus might 
infer that this writer should be classed with Goldsmith or Pinnock, or even lower : 
yet the work of Fiorus is written with literary pretension, and not without 
literary merit. His descriptions of Rome under Romulus, Res erat vmius cetatis. 
■populus virorum; of Samnium, after the conquest, Ita ruinas ipsas urbium 



JUSTINUS. — VALERIUS MAXIMUS. 367 

Justinus Prontinus, or Marcus Junianus Justinus, who Justinus. 
dedicates his work to the Emperor Antoninus (if the passage be 
genuine), was merely the epitomiser of the larger history of Trogus 
Pompeius ; and the merits or faults of the narrative are not, there- 
fore, to be attributed to him. It professes to be an universal 
history, commencing with the earliest times, and terminating at the 
period when the several nations of whom it treats fell under the 
power of Borne. Of Kome itself there is only given a sketch of 
its origin, according to the common accounts ; and in some 
instances, as in the case of Parthia, the account of a nation is 
carried down to the reign of Augustus, if it had not been con- 
quered at an earlier period. Trogus Pompeius seems to have been 
a very common-place compiler ; and, therefore, the merit of his 
work is very unequal. A great part of it appears to be copied 
from writers of no great ability or accuracy ; but sometimes, as in 
the sketch given of the Parthian constitution, the materials must 
have been borrowed from a better source ; and we thus occasionally 
glean some valuable information, which we could not easily find 
elsewhere. 

The anecdotes of Valerius Maximus, who wrote in the time of Valerius 
Tiberius, afford us some curious particulars ; but the accuracy of Maxmms - 
such collections is never to be much relied upon, as the authors 
think themselves at liberty to transfer any striking story into their 
pages which they may find anywhere recorded, without feeling 
bound to examine the evidence on which it rests, or to strip it of any 
exaggeration which it may have gathered since its first production. 
Here then we shall terminate our review of the Historians of 
Kome. We may appear to have dealt out to them an unequal 
| measure, in bestowing more of our attention on some, and less 
| upon others, than they may be thought to have deserved. But our Reflections 
1 object has not been to enter into a minute criticism of individual °£ * he duty 
I writers, but chiefly to notice those defects in ancient history, which Historian. 
\ seem to have arisen from general causes, and to be referable to the 
I peculiar circumstances and opinions of that period of antiquity 
■| with which we have been concerned. We have entered at some 
j length into this part of our subject, not certainly from any wish to 
I speak with severity of any individual writer, but because the faults 
; which we have noticed have exercised a most injurious influence on 
1 modern history ; nor will the mischief be removed till both the 

] diruit, ut Jwdie Samnium in ipso Samnio requiratur ; and numberless other 
! touches, remind us of Tacitus. Hannibal's expedition, and the destruction of 
' Carthage, are not dry outlines, but spirited coloured sketches, evidencing the hand 
| of a master. These, too, are rather samples than exceptions. The historical 
\ value of Florus is a different question. He adopts without a word of qualification 
1 the most palpable fables, and relates them with no less earnestness than if he was 
recording the most unimpeachable facts. He is, therefore, only an authority for 
what was believed, aud that not by the most intelligent, iu his day. — Editor. 



368 



THE HISTORIANS OP ROME. 



Reflections 
on the duty 
of a 
Historian. 



magnitude of the evil and its causes be fully and strongly stated. 
The influence of which we speak may be traced distinctly through 
the great Italian historians, and those of the XVth or XVIth 
centuries, who composed their works in Latin, down to the French 
and English historians of the XVIIth, and even of the XVIIIth 
centuries. It is to be observed in the habit of regarding history 
as a literary composition, and as a source of literary fame to the 
author ; in the consequent neglect of plain and useful, but labo- 
rious and unostentatious subjects of inquiry, and an excessive 
attention to all that was ornamental, whether in matter or style. 
It was a habit which encouraged the natural indolence of human 
nature, by attaching the highest fame to that which required least 
trouble, and undervaluing the labour which it neglected by repre- 
senting it as unnecessary and undignified. From this alone could 
have sprung that preposterous ambition in any one individual to 
write an universal history, or, in modern times, to write the history 
of more than one single century. No one would have ever 
attempted such a work, if any just notions of the extent of a 
historian's labour had been entertained either by writers or readers. 
If eloquent narrative or ingenious disquisition may supply the 
place of deep and exact knowledge, then indeed we may profess 
without difficulty to write histories as extensive as we please in 
their range of time and place. But if no man can describe any 
period as he ought to do, without obtaining as nearly as possible 
the knowledge of a contemporary ; it is obvious that this know- 
ledge can only be gained by a general study of all the existing 
memorials of that period ; by a perusal, not only of its annalists 
and historians, but of its divines, philosophers, poets, novelists, and 
writers of a still more fugitive description, from whom the 
physical and moral state of society at any one time, can alone be 
adequately learned ; and it is still more obvious, that where those 
materials are as numerous as they are in modern times, it is 
physically impossible for one man to do more than acquaint himself 
with those which relate to one limited period. One sacrifice of 
selfishness is thus required in a historian, that he should resign the 
detail of many brilliant eras, and satisfy himself with one alone, 
and that perhaps not the most attractive ; another, and perhaps a 
greater, is also called for, that the quantity of his writing should 
not be in proportion to that of his reading ; that he should be 
content to toil through many a page, without informing the world 
of the amount of his industry, and without deriving any more 
visible fruit from it than the increased richness and soundness of 
knowledge which will transpire through every portion of his work. 
We shall be told, that this is to expect what never will come 
to pass ; that he who has taken great pains will always wish to 
gain due credit for it ; that he who has bestowed much time in 



DUTY OF A HISTORIAN. 



369 



ascertaining some unimportant fact, will think it entitled to the same Reflections 
share of the reader's attention, which it has demanded of his own. on the duty 
It may be, indeed, that we shall never see a perfect historian ; but Historian, 
the nearest approaches to perfection are ever gained by holding up 
to all aspirants an uncompromising standard, and by requiring 
them to strain every faculty to the utmost. He who writes for the 
instruction of others has entered on no flowery path of selfish 
gratification ; but has undertaken a sober and solemn duty ; from 
which, as from every other, selfishness must be assiduously 
excluded. It is not fame, however brilliant, or any self-satisfaction 
in the display of intellectual excellence, which can lawfully be the 
object of a historian ; but to do good after his measure, by the 
conscientious exercise of those faculties which God has given him ; 
while he bears continually in humbling remembrance, the end for 
which they were given, and the guilt either of abusing them or 
glorying in them. 




[e. l.] 



370 



MSS., EDITIONS, &c, OF THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 



SALLUST. 

Ed. Princeps. Romse. 1470. 
Corte. Lips. 1724. 
Havercamp. Hag. 1742. 
Gerlach. Basil. 1823—1831. 
Kritz. Lips. 1828—1834. 
Translations. Stewart. Lond. 1806. 

Murphy. Lond. 1807. 

Barclay (Jugurtha). 
See Index of Editions and Translations prefixed to Frotsclier's Edition. 

CESAR. 

Ed. Princ. Romse. 1449. 
Jungermann. Francof. 1669. 
Groevius. Lugd. Bat. 1713. 
Cellarius. Lips. 1705. 
Davis. Cantab. 1727. 
Oudendorp. Stuttgard. 1822. 
Moras, edente Oberlin. Lips. 1819. 



LIVY. 

MSS. 1st. dec. Cod. Parisinus. (10th century.) 

— „ Mediceus. (11th century.) 
3rd. „ Puteanus. 

4th. „ Bambergensis. 

— „ Moguntinus. 
5th. „ Laurischamensis. 

Ed. Princ. Romse. Sweynheym and Pannartz. 1469. 

2nd Edit. Romse, Udalricus Gallus. 1469 or 1470. 

3rd Edit. Venet. Vindelin de Spira. 1470. 
Aldus. Venet. 1518—1533. 
Gryphius et alii. Paris. 1543. 
Manutius. Venet. 1592. 
Gruterus. Francofurti. 1689. 
Gronovius in Elzev. varior. 1679. And edited by Clericus. Paris. 

1735—1741. 
Crevier. Paris. 1735—1742. 

Drakenborch. Lugd. Bat. 1738—1746. (The standard edit.) 
Stroth and Doring. Goth. 1796—1819. 
Ruperti. Gotting. 1807—1809. 
Bekker and Raschig. Lips. 1829. 

Subsidia : — 

Lachmann. Commentationes de fontibus Historiarum T. Livii. 

Gotting. 1822—1828. 
Translation : — Baker. 



MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS OE ROME. 371 



CORNELIUS NEPOS. 

The lives "which, we possess under the name of Cornelius Nepos were pub- 
lished, with some variations, under the name of Ormilius Probus, a 
contemporary of the Emperor Theodosius, by Jenson, Venet. 1471 ; 
by Bernardinus Venetus (no date) ; and at Milan, though without 
name of place, year, or printer, but not later than 1496. The 
work was ascribed to Ormilius Probus entirely, until the Strasburg 
edition of 1506 attributed the Life of Atticus to Cornelius Nepos. 
Lambinus, in his edition (Paris, 1569) first asserted the whole book to 
be the work of Cornelius Nepos. Subsequent editions are : — 

Schottus. Francof. 1609. 

Gebhardus. Amst. 1644. 

Bocclerus. Argent. 1648. 

Bosius. Jenae. 1675. 
*Van Staveren. Liigd. Bat. 1773. 

Heusinger. Krug. 1747. 

Fischer. Lips. 1759. 

Harles. Lips. 1806. 

Paufla. Lips. 1804. 
*Tzschucke. Gotting. 1804. 
fTitze. Prag. 1813. 
*fLemaire. Paris. 1820. 
*Brerne. Turici. 1820. 
fBardili. Stuttgard. 1820. 
tDahne. Lips. 1827. 
+Roth. Basil. 1841. 
+Benecke. Berolin. 1843. 



VELLEIUS PATERCULUS. 

This author comes to us on the faith of one MS. only, which Beatus 
Rhenanus discovered in the Monastery of Murbach, but which has 
since perished. A copy was made by Amerbachius, a pupil of 
Rhenanus, which was collated with the edition by Orelli. 

Ed. Princ. Rhenanus. Basil. 1520. 

Lipsius. Lugd. Bat. 1591 and 1607. 

Gruter. Francof. 1607. 

Ger. Vossius. Lugd. Bat. 1639. 

Bceclerus. Argent. 1642. 

Thysius. Lugd. Bat. 1653. 

Heinsius. Amstel. 1678. 

Hudson. Oxon. 1693. 

P. Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1719. 

Ruhnken. Lugd. Bat. 1789. A very valuable edition in respect of sub- 
sidia. Reprinted by Frotscher, Lips. 1830—1839. 

K?ause. | *+■ "<* 

Cludius. Hanov. 1815. 



* Useful working editions. 

+ Containing Subsidia, on the question of authorship. 

BB 2 



372 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS OF ROME. 

Lemaire. Paris. 1822. 
Orelli. Lips. 1835. 
Kreyssig. Lips. 1836. 
Bothe. Turici. 1837. 

Subsidia : — 

Morgenstern De Fide Hist. Velleji Paterculi. Gedani. 1798. 



TACITUS. 

Ed. Princ. Vindelin de Spira. Venet. 1470. 

(Last six books of Annals, the Histories, Germany, Dialogue de 

Oratoribus). 
Ph. Beroaldus. Romae. 1515. (Entire works.) 
Beatus Rhenanus. Basil. 1533. 
Ernesti, by Oberlin. Lips. 1801. 
Brotier. Paris. 1771. 
Bekker. Lips. 1831. 
Orelli. Turici. 1846 and 1848. 
Agricola. — 

Walch. Berlin. 1827. 
Germania. 

Grimm. Gotting. 1835. 
Dial, de Orat. 

Orelli. Turici. 1830. 
For fm-ther information on Editions, see Hain's Repertorium and 

Schweigger's Handbuch der Classischen Biographie. 

Subsidia : — 

Bb'tticher's Lexicon Taciteum. Berolin. 1830. Lipsii Commen _ arii 
et Excursus. 

Translations : — 

Greenway (Annals and Germany). 
Savile (Histories and Agricola). 
Gordon. 
Murphy. 



SUETONIUS. 

Fifteen editions of this writer were printed before a.d. 1500. The oldest 

with a date is Romse, 1470. 
Casaubon. Paris. 1610. 
Schild. Lugd. Bat. 1647. 

P. Burmann. Amstel. 1736. "With valuable apparatus. 
Baumgarten-Crusius, edente C. B. Hase. Paris. 1828. 

Subsidia :— 

Krause de Suetonii Tranquilli Fontibus et Auctoritate. Berol. 1841. 
(See B'ahr's Geschichte der Rom. Lit. under Suetonius, for more particulars 

of this writer.) 

Translations : — 

Holland. Lond. 1606. 
Thomson. Lond. 1796. 



MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS OE ROME. 373 



FLOEUS. 

Ed. Princ. Gering, Friburg, and Cranz, at the Sorbonne, 1471, under the 
inspection of Gaguin. Two other editions, one in Gothic and one in 
Koman letter, dispute the precedency with this. There are six im- 
pressions of the fifteenth century. 

Carriers. Vienna? Pannon. 1518. Basil. 1532. 

Vinetus. Paris. 1576. 

Stadius. Antverp. 1594. 

Gruterus and Salmasius. Heidel. 1609. 

Freinshemius. Argentorati. 1655. 

Grsevius. Trajecti ad Ehen. 1680. 

Dukerus. Lips. 1832. 

Titze. Prag. 1819. 

Seebode. Lips. 1821. 



JUSTIN. 

Ed. Princ. Jenson. Yenetiis. 1470. There is another edition without 
date or printer's name, probably of the same year. 

The editions of this author may be considered successive improvements. 
They are : — 

Sabellicus. Venet. 1507. 

Aldus. Venet. 1522. 

Bongarsius. Paris. 1581. 

Graevius. Lugd. Bat. 1683. 

Hearne. Oxon. 1705. 

Gronovius. Lugd. Bat. 1760. 

Frotscher. Lips. 1827. 

Translations : — 

Codrington, 1654 ; Brown, 1712 ; Bayley, 1732 ; Clarke, 1732 ; Turn- 
bull, 1746. All printed in London. 



VALERIUS MAXIMUS. 

Ed. Princ. Supposed to be a folio in Gothic characters, without date or 
printer's name ; but known to have been printed by J. Mentelin at 
Strasburg, and supposed to be about 1470. Two other editions contest 
the honour, viz. — Schoyfer, Mogunt. 1471 ; and Vindelin de Spira, 
Venet. 1471. Fourteen distinct editions were published before 1490. 

Aldus. Venet. 1502. 

Manutius. Venet. 1534. 

Pighius. Antv. Plantin. 1657. 

Vorstius. Berol. 1672. 

Torrenius. Lugd. Bat. 1726. 

Kappius. Lips. 1782. 

Translation. — Speed. Lond. 167 8. 



STATE OF 

ROMAN LITERATURE 

IN THE TIME OE THE EMPEEOE TEAJAK 

BY THE LATE 

THOMAS AENOLD, D.D. 

HEAD MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL. 



Extracted from the Biography of M. Ulpius Trajanus Crinitus, Con- 
tributed by Dr. Arnold to the History of Rome, forming part of the 
Encyclopedia Metropolitana. 




Trajan. 

STATE OF EOMAN LITEEATUEE IN THE TIME 
OE THE EMPEEOE TEAJAN. 

FROM A.D. 98 TO A.D. 117. 

We have already'' expressed our opinion, that the merits of Roman 
Eoman Literature, even in its most flourishing period, have been ^\he time 
greatly overrated ; and we believe that a review of its condition at of Trajan. 
the end of the 1st century of the Christian era might tend to 
lessen our wonder at the ignorance which afterwards prevailed 
throughout Europe. Our first impression would probably be 
highly favourable : we meet with the names of a great many writers, 
whose reputation is even now eminent ; we know that learning 
was not only held in honour in the eastern provinces, where it had 
been long since cultivated, but that Gaul, and Spain, and Africa, 
abounded with schools and orators, and that a taste for literary 
studies had been introduced even into Britain. The names of the 
most distinguished orators at Eome were familiarly known in the 
remotest parts of the empire, 1 and any splendid passages in their 
speeches were copied out by the provincial students, and sent down 
to their friends at home, to excite their admiration, and serve as 
models for their imitation. Even the Koman laws, once so cold 
and so disdainful of literature and the fine arts, had in some points 
adopted a more conciliating language ; and the profession of a 
sophist 2 was a legal exemption from the duties of a juryman in the 

1 Dialogus.de Oratoribus, viii. 2 Pliny, Epist. x. 66. 



378 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OP TRAJAN. 

Roman Conventus or circuits of the provincial judges. The age of Trajanus 
inttietimeof taen na( * g reat ty the advantage over that of Augustus in the more 
Trajan. general diffusion of knowledge, while, in the comparison of individual 
writers, the eminence which Virgil and Horace attained in poetry 
was at least equalled by the historical fame of Tacitus. But although 
knowledge was more common than it had been a century before, 
still its range was necessarily confined ; nor before the invention of 
printing could it possibly be otherwise. Pliny expresses l his 
surprise at hearing that there was a bookseller's shop to be found 
at Lugdunum, or Lyons ; yet this very city had been for a long 
time the scene of public recitations in Greek and Latin, in which 
. the orators of Gaul contended for the prize of eloquence. Thus, 
instead of the various clubs, reading-rooms, circulating libraries, 
and book-societies, which make so many thousands in our day 
acquainted with every new publication worthy of notice, it was the 
practice of authors at Rome to read aloud their compositions to a 
large audience of their friends and acquaintance; and not only 
poetry and orations were thus recited, but also works of history. 2 
Reciters. To attend these readings was often, naturally enough, considered 
rather an irksome civility ; they who went at first reluctantly were 
apt to be but languid auditors ; and we all know, that, even to those 
most fond of literature, it is no agreeable task to sit hour after 
hour the unemployed and constrained listeners alike to the eloquence 
or dulness, to the sense or folly of another. The weariness then of 
the audience was to be relieved by the selection of brilliant and 
forcible passages ; their feelings were to be gratified rather than 
their understandings ; and amidst the excitement of a crowded hall, 
and an impassioned recitation, there was no room for that silent 
exercise of judgment and reflection which alone leads to wisdom. 
From this habit, then, of hearing books rather than reading them, it 
was natural that poetry and oratory should be the most popular 
kinds of literature ; and that history, as we have observed in our 
notice of the Roman historians, should be tempted to assume the 
charms of oratory, in order to procure for itself an audience. A 
detail of facts cannot be remembered by being once heard ; and 
many of the most useful inquiries or discussions in history, however 
valuable to the thoughtful student, are not the best calculated to 
win the attention of a mixed audience, when orally delivered. The 
scarcity of books, therefore, inducing the practice of reading them 
aloud to many hearers, instead of reserving them for hours of 
solitude and undisturbed thought, may be considered as one of the 
chief causes of the false luxuriance of literature at Eome in the 
reigns of the first emperors, and of its early and complete decay. 
We have already noticed the unworthy ideas which the Romans 

1 Pliny, Epist. ix. 11. 
2 Ibid. Epist. vii. 17 ; ix. 27. Compare also i. 13 ; vi. 15 ; viii. 12. 



ROMAN LAW AND RELIGION. 379 

entertained of its nature, and how completely they degraded it into Roman 

a mere plaything of men's prosperous hours, an elegant amusement, ^."he time of 

and an embellishment of life ; not a matter of serious use to Trajan. 

individuals and to the State. Works of physical science, and much 

more such as tend to illustrate the useful arts, were therefore 

almost unknown ; so also were books of travels, details of statistics, The Romans 

and everything relating to political economy. Had books of this *^JS^ d 

description been numerous, it would indeed have been strange if ideas of 

the Eoman Empire had afterwards relapsed into ignorance. The lteratuie ' 

nations by whom it was overrun would readily have appreciated the 

benefits of a knowledge which daily made life more comfortable, 

and nations more enlightened and more prosperous : and the 

advantages of cultivating the understanding would have been as 

obvious to men of every condition in Eome as they are actually 

at the present time in England, Germany, and America. As a 

proof of this we may observe, that the only two kinds of really 

valuable knowledge which the Eomans had to communicate to their 

northern conquerors, were both adopted by them with eagerness ; 

we mean their law and their religion. The Eoman Code found its The Roman 

way, or rather retained much of its authority in the kingdoms Reunion. 

founded upon the ruins of the empire, and its wisdom imperceptibly 

influenced the law of those countries which affected most to regard 

it with jealousy and aversion. And the Christian religion, in like 

manner, survived the confusion of the fourth and fifth centuries, 

and continually exercised its beneficent power in ensuring individual 

happiness, and lessening the amount of public misery. If, together 

with these, Eome could have offered to her conquerors an enlarged 

knowledge of Nature and of the useful arts, and clear views of the 

principles of political economy and the higher science of legislation 

in general, we need not doubt that they would have accepted these 

gifts also, and that thus the corruption to which her law and religion 

were exposed would have been in a great measure obviated. For 

it is a most important truth, and one which requires at this day to 

be most earnestly enforced, that it is by the study of facts, whether importance 

relating to Nature or to man, and not by any pretended cultivation °£ p a e J udy 

of the mind by poetry, oratory, and moral or critical dissertations, 

that the understandings of mankind in general will be most 

improved, and their views of things rendered most accurate. And 

the reason of this is, that every man has a fondness for knowledge 

of some kind ; and by acquainting himself with those facts or 

truths which are most suited to his taste, he finds himself gaining 

something, the value of which he can appreciate, and in the pursuit 

of which, therefore, all his natural faculties will be best developed. 

Prom the mass of varied knowledge thus possessed by the several 

members of the community arises the great characteristic of a 

really enlightened age — a sound and sensible judgment ; a quality 



380 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN. 

Eoman which can only be formed by the habit of regarding things in 
intoetSeof different lights, as they appear to intelligent men of different 
Trajan. pursuits and in different classes of society, and by thus correcting 
the limited notions to which the greatest minds are liable, when 
left to indulge without a corrective in their own peculiar train of 
opinions. Want of judgment, therefore, is the prevailing defect in 
all periods of imperfect civilisation, and in those wherein the showy 
branches of literature have been forced by patronage, while the 
more beneficial parts of knowledge have been neglected. Nor is it 
to the purpose to say, that the study of facts is of no benefit, 
unless we form from them some general conclusions. The disease 
of the human mind is impatiently to anticipate conclusions ; so 
little danger is there that it will be slow in deducing them, when 
it is once in possession of premises from which they may justly be 
derived. But, on the other hand, wherever words and striking 
images are mainly studied, as was the case in ancient Kome, man's 
natural indolence is encouraged, and he proceeds at once to reason 
without taking the trouble of providing himself with the necessary 
materials. Eloquence, indeed, and great natural ability, may, in 
the most favourable instances, disguise to the vulgar the shallowness 
which lurks beneath them; but with the mass of mankind this 
system is altogether fatal : — learning, in the only shape in which 
it presents itself to their eyes, is to them utterly useless ; they have 
no desire to pursue it, and, if they had such, their pursuit would 
be fruitless. They remain therefore in their natural ignorance ; 
not partaking in the pretended cultivation of their age, and feeling 
no deprivation when the ill-rooted literature which was the mere 
amusement of the great and wealthy is swept away by the first 
considerable revolution in the state of society. 
Decay of The decay of learning, then, which we are called to account for, 

Learning. - g Q f a ^ things the most readily explained. Unsubstantial as it 
was, it would have worn out of itself, as it did at Constantinople, 
even if no external violence had overwhelmed it. Eacts, indeed, 
whether physical or moral, are a food which will not only preserve 
the mind in vigour, but, increasing in number with every successive 
century, furnish it with the means of an almost infinite progress. 
But the changes on words and sentiments are soon capable of being 
exhausted; the earliest writers seize their best and happiest 
combinations, and nothing is left for their successors but imitation 
or necessary inferiority. Poetry had fallen sufficiently low in the 
hands of Silius Italicus, and history in those of Appian and Dion 
Cassius ; the Eomans themselves in the reign of Trajanus acknow- 
ledged their inferiority to their ancestors in oratory, and in a few 
centuries more the vessel was drained out to the dregs. The great 
excellence of Tacitus is a mere individual instance, and we might 
as well ask, why Eome had produced no historian of equal merit 



THE ELDER ELENY. 381 

before him as why she produced none such after him. One other ?^2 
great man had died only a few years before the accession of in the time of 
Trajanus, whose example, had it been imitated, might have pro- ' Ira J an - 
duced a great revolution in the intellectual state of the Eoman Pliny the 
Empire. We speak of the elder Pliny, the natural historian. The Elder ' 
particulars of his life and death recorded by his nephew, 1 no less 
than the contents of his own work, display a thirst after real 
knowledge, and an active spirit in searching for it, by a personal 
study of the great book of Nature, which rose far above the false 
views and the literary indolence of his contemporaries. But he 
was a splendid exception to the spirit of his age, and there arose 
none to tread in his steps. Posterity were contented to read his 
writings, rather than improve upon them by imitating his example ; 
and his authority continued to be quoted with reverence on all 
points of natural history, even down to a period when errors, which 
in him were unavoidable, could no longer be repeated without 
disgrace. 

It may be asked, however, why the example of Pliny was not ^o^™ e an 



1 C. Plinius Secundus was born at Yerona, or Novum Comum, the modern 
Como. The preponderance of evidence we should assign to the latter place, as 
the family estate was there, and inscriptions found in that neighbourhood refer to 
the family, which was one of wealth and consideration. He came to Rome when 
young, and with a view to intellectual culture. At the age of twenty-three he 
served in the army under L. Pomponius Secundus, by whom he was appointed 
commander of a troop of cavalry, aud of whom he wrote a memoir. The scientific 
bent of his mind was brought to bear upon his military duties ; and he composed a 
treatise, De Jaculatione Fquestri. and the history of the wars in Germany, in 20 
books. After six years' service, he returned with his chief to Rome, where he 
practised as an advocate. Retreating to his native country, he composed a work 
called Studiosus, probably for the more immediate benefit of his nephew. After 
this he wrote a grammatical work, in 8 books, intituled Diibius Sermo, which 
appears to have excited considerable opposition, though it was never formally 
refuted. Not long before the death of Nero, Pliny was appointed procurator of Spain. 
While in this office he lost his sister and brother ; the son of the former was, by the 
father's desire, intrusted to his guardianship ; and, consequently, in the reign of Ves- 
pasian, he returned to Rome, and adopted his nephew. He was on intimate terms 
with that Emperor, and with Titus, to whom he dedicated his Historia Naturalis, 
which, probably, owed its origin to the iuterest which he had long taken in the 
rare animals exhibited in the shows at Rome. His reading was almost perpetual, 
and prodigiously extensive. He left to his nephew 160 volumes of commentaries 
on various subjects, the results of his incessant studies. Some time before they 
had reached this number, Pliny had been offered for them the sum of 400,000 
sesterces. The details of the death of Pliny will be found in a most interesting 
letter of his nephew to Tacitus. (Ep. vi. 16.) He was in command of the fleet at 
Misenum, August 24, a.d. 79, when the great eruption of Vesuvius, which 
overthrew the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, commenced. Contrary to the 
advice of all around him, he set sail for Stabioe, to visit his friend Pomponianus, 
and to make observations of the phenomenon. He reached this place in safety ; 
but on the following morning, when the earthquake rendered it necessary to quit 
the house, and lie down in the open air, he died on a sail which had been laid 
down for him, suffocated, apparently, by the sulphureous vapour. — Editor. 



neglected in 
this age. 



382 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN. 

Roman followed, and why the most valuable parts of human knowledge 
taStime of were s0 unhappily neglected. In addition to the cause which we 
Trajan. have already mentioned, namely, the scarcity of books, the practice 
of recitations, and the consequent discouragement of any com- 
positions that were not lively and eloquent, there are several other 
circumstances which tended to produce the same effect. The 
natural indolence of mankind, and their attachment to the old 
beaten track, were powerful obstacles to the improvements that 
were most required ; and if so many centuries elapsed in later times 
before the birth of Bacon, we need not wonder that no man of 
equal powers with Pliny arose at Eome between the age of Trajanus 
and the fall of the Western Empire. We must consider also the 
general helplessness of mind produced by such a government as 
that of Eome ; which, while it deprived men of the noblest field for 
their exertions — a participation direct or indirect in the manage- 
ment of the affairs of the nation — did not, like some modern 
despotisms, encourage activity of another kind, by its patronage 
of manufactures and commerce. If we ask, further, why commerce 
did not thrive of itself without the aid of the government, and why 
the internal trade kept up between the different part3 of an empire 
so admirably supplied with the means of mutual intercourse was 
not on a scale of the greatest magnitude, the answer is to be found 
partly in the habits of the nations of the south of Europe, which, 
with some exceptions, have never been addicted to much commercial 
enterprise, and much more to the want of capital amongst private 
individuals, and the absence of a demand for distant commodities 
amongst the people at large, owing to their general poverty. The 
enormous sums lavished by the emperors, and possessed by some 
of the nobility, or by fortunate individuals of the inferior classes, 
have provoked the scepticism of many modern readers, as implying 
a mass of wealth in the Eoman Empire utterly incredible. They 
rather show how unequally property was distributed ; an evil of 
very long standing at Eome, and aggravated probably by the 
merciless exactions of many of the emperors, who seemed literally 
unsatisfied so long as any of their subjects possessed anything. 
The Indian trade, which furnished articles of luxury for the con- 
sumption of the great, was therefore in a flourishing condition ; but 
not so that internal commerce in articles of ordinary comfort, 
which in most countries of modern Europe is carried on with such 
incessant activity. Where trade is at a low ebb, the means of 
communication between different countries are always defective ; 
and hence there exists undisturbed a large amount of inactivity 
and ignorance, and a necessarily low state of physical science and 
the study of nature. So that from all these causes together, there 
would result that effect on the intellectual condition of the Eoman 
empire which we have described as so unfavourable. 



THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 383 

From this unsatisfactory picture we turn with delight to the Roman 
contemplation of a promise and of a partial beginning of moral Sth?time f 
improvement, such as Eome had never seen before. We need not Trajan. 
dwell upon the need that there was for such a reform, except to The moral 
observe, that there can be no better proof of a degraded state of Empire, 
morals than the want of natural affection in parents towards their 
offspring ; and that the practice of infanticide, 1 or that of exposing 
children soon after their birth, together with the fact that Trajanus 
found it necessary to provide for five thousand children at the 
public expense, and that Pliny imitated his example on a smaller 
scale in his own town of Comum, sufficiently show how greatly 
parents neglected their most natural duty. It is remarkable, also, 
that the younger Pliny, a man by no means destitute of virtue, 
could not only write and circulate indecent verses, but deliberately 
justify himself for having done so. 2 Yet, with all this, the writings The stoic 
of Epictetus and M. Aurelius Antoninus, if we may include the osop y * 
latter in a review of the reign of Trajanus, present a far purer and 
truer morality than the Romans had yet been acquainted with 
from any heathen pen. The providence of God, the gratitude 
which we owe him for all his gifts, and the duty of submission to 
his will, are prominently brought forward ; while the duties of 
man to man, the claims which our neighbours have upon our 
constant exertions to do them service, and the excellence of abstain- 
ing from revenge or uncharitable feelings, are enforced with far 
greater earnestness than in the writings of the older philosophers. 
We cannot, indeed, refuse to admire the noble effort of the stoic its 
philosophy to release mankind from the pressure of physical evil, excellences - 
and to direct their minds with undivided affection to the pursuit of 
moral good. When the prospect beyond the grave was all darkness, 
the apparently confused scene of human life could not but perplex 
the best and wisest ; sickness, loss of friends, poverty, slavery, or 
an untimely death, might visit him who had laboured most steadily 
in the practice of virtue; and even Aristotle himself 3 is forced with 
his own hands to destroy the theory of happiness which he had so 
elaborately formed, by the confession that the purest virtue might 
be so assailed with external evils that it could only preserve its 
possessor from absolute misery. The Stoics assumed a bolder 
language, and strove with admirable firmness to convince reluctant 
nature of its truth. Happiness, as they taught, was neither 
unattainable by man, nor dependent on external circumstances ; 

1 Is not the prevalence of infanticide among the Romans indicated by the 
observation which Tacitus makes concerning the Jews ? — Hist. v. 5. Augendae 
multitudini consnlitur. Nam necare quanquam ex agnatis, nefas. And, again, he 
says the same thing of the Germans, German. 19 : Numerum liberorum finire, 
aut quemquam ex agnatis necare, flagitium habetur. 2 Epist. iv. 14 ; v. 3. 

3 Ethic. Nicomach. i. 10 : ^AOAios /iieu ovSeVoTe yivoir tuv 6 evdaljiuv, ov 
/J.))? fxaKaptos ye, av TLpiafJUKOiS ri^cus -rrepurecry. 






384 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN. 

Roman the providence of God had not, 1 according to the vulgar complaint, 
iQthTtime of scattered good and evil indiscriminately upon the virtuous and the 
Trajan. wicked ; the gifts and the deprivations of fortune were neither good 
nor evil ; and all that was really good was virtue, all that was 
really bad was vice, which were respectively chosen by men at their 
own will, and so chosen that the distribution of happiness and 
misery to each was in exact proportion to his own deservings. 
But as it was not possible to attain to this estimate of external 
things without the most severe discipline, the Stoics taught their 
disciples to desire nothing at all 2 till they had so changed their 
nature as to desire nothing but what was really good. In the same 
way, they inculcated an absence of all feelings, in order to avoid 
subjecting ourselves to any other power than that of reason. When 
our friends were in distress, 3 we might appear outwardly to sympa- 
thise with their sorrow, but we were by no means to grieve with 
them in heart ; a parent should not be roused to punish his son, 4 
for it was better that the son should turn out ill than that the 
father should be diverted from the care of his own mind by his 
interest for another. Death was to be regarded as the common lot 
of all, 5 and the frailty of our nature should accustom us to view it 
without surprise and alarm. In itself it must be an extinction of 
being, 6 or a translation to another state, still equally under the 
government of a wise and good Providence ; it could not then be 
justly an object of fear, and our only care should be to wait for its 
coming without anxiety, and to improve the time allotted to us 
before its arrival, whether it were but a day or half a century. 
its im- Such were the doctrines of the Stoic philosophers of the age of 

perfections. Trajanus ; and assuredly it must be a strange blindness or un- 
charitableness that can refuse to admire them. He can entertain 
but unworthy notions of the wisdom of God who is afraid lest the 
wisdom of man should rival it. The Stoic philosophy was unfitted 
for the weakness of human nature ; its contempt of physical evil 
was revolting to the common-sense of mankind, and was absolutely 
unattainable by persons of delicate bodily constitutions ; and thus, 
generally speaking, by one-half of the human race, and particularly 
by that sex which, under a wiser discipline, has been found capable 
of attaining to such high excellence. Above all, it could not 
represent God to man under those peculiar characters in which 
every affection and faculty of our nature finds its proper object and 
guide. There are many passages in the works of Epictetus and 
M. Antoninus in which his general providence and our duties 
towards Him are forcibly declared ; still He seems to be at the most 
no more than a part of their system, and that, neither the most 

1 Epictetus, Enchiridion, 38. 2 Ibid. 7. 

3 Ibid. 22. 4 Ibid . 16 . 

5 M. Antoninus, iii. 3 ; iv. 32. 43. 6 Ibid. vii. 32. 



THE SOPHISTS. 385 

striking, nor the most fully developed. But in order to make us Roman 
like Hun, it was necessary that in all our views of life, in our J^fo e a £J! of 
motives, in our hopes, and in our affections, G-od should be all in Trajan. 
all; that He should be represented to us, not as He is in him- 
self, but as He stands related to us — as our Father, and our 
Saviour, and the Author of all our goodness ; in those characters, 
in short, under which the otherwise incomprehensible Deity has 
so revealed Himself as to be known and loved, not only by the 
strongest and wisest of his creatures, but also by the weak and 
the ignorant. 

One great defect in the ancient systems of philosophy was their 
want of authority. It was opinion opposed to opinion, and thus 
the disputes of the several sects seemed incapable of ever arriving 
at a decision. Plain men, therefore, were bewildered by the con- 
flicting pretensions of their teachers, when they turned to seek 
some relief from the utter folly and worthlessness of the popular 
religion, So that a large portion of mankind were likely to adopt 
the advice of Lucian, 1 to regard with contempt all the high dis- 
cussions of the philosophers relating to the end and principle of 

i our being, and to think only of the present, bestowing serious 
thoughts upon nothing, and endeavouring to pass through life 
laughingly. Something, too, must be ascribed, not only to the 
discordant opinions of the philosophers, but to their reputed 
dishonesty ; and the suspicion which attached to them of turning 
morality into a trade. Their temptations were strong, and such as 

j we have seen even the teachers of Christianity unable often to 
resist. In an age of ignorance, just made conscious of its own The 
deficiencies, any moral and intellectual superiority is regarded with Sophist?. 
veneration ; and when the sophists professed to teach men the true 
business of life, they found many who were eager to listen to them. 
Then followed an aggravation of the evils of popular preaching 
under another name : the sophists aspired to be orators as well as 
moralists; and their success would depend as much on their 
eloquence and impressive delivery as on the soundness of their 
doctrines. In the eastern part of the empire their ascendancy was 
great ; and, if the story of Philostratus be true, 2 the philosophers 
in Egypt formed as considerable a body, and, during the stay of 
Yespasianus at Alexandria, claimed the right of advising princes 
as boldly, as the Eomish clergy of a later period have done. 

I TVith these means of influence, and the consequent temptation to 
abuse it, the sophists were without that organisation and discipline 
which in the Christian church preserved the purity, or checked the 
excesses of individual teachers ; and, not being responsible to any 

1/ one for their conduct, they were less scrupulous in avoiding censure. 

1 Necyomanteia, p. 166. 

[R. l.] 



T 



38G ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OP TRAJAN. 

L°t na t e ^ ne same wan ^ of organisation prevented them from acting in 
in the time of concert in the several parts of the empire, and from directing their 
Trajan. attention on a regular system to all classes of the community, from 
the highest to the lowest. The sophists were no missionaries ; and 
poor or remote districts, which could tempt neither their cupidity 
nor their ambition, derived little advantage from their knowledge. 
Effects of the Under these circumstances, the Christian religion had grown with 
Keuliou? surprising rapidity, and must have produced effects on the character 
and happiness of individuals far greater than the common details 
of history will allow us to estimate. If our sole information were 
derived from Pliny's famous letter, we must yet be struck with the 
first instance in Eoman history of a society for the encouragement 
of the highest virtues, those of piety, integrity, and purity, and 
embracing persons of both sexes and of all conditions. Such a 
project was indeed a complete remedy for the prevailing faults of 
the times : it promised not only to teach goodness, but actively to 
disseminate it; and to do away those degrading distinctions 
between slaves and freemen, and even between men and women, 
which had so limited the views of the philosophers in their plans 
for the improvement of mankind. Of all subjects for history, none 
would be so profitable as the fortunes of the Christian society ; to 
trace the various causes w r hich impeded or corrupted its operations, 
and to bring at the same time fully into view that vast amount of 
good which its inherent excellence enabled it still to effect, amidst 
all external obstacles and internal corruptions. We think that its 
friends have not rightly understood the several elements which have 
led to its partial failure, while we are certain that its enemies can 
never appreciate its benefits. But we must not enter upon this 
most inviting field at present. We hasten to conclude this memoir 
of Trajanus, after we have briefly noticed the character of his 
individual government, 
of the The highest spirit of a sovereign is to labour to bring his govern- 

Government , • ° ' i. e • 1 -ui j. a a x- 

oi Trajanus. ment, m every point ot view, as nearly as possible to a state ol 
absolute perfection ; his next highest praise is, to administer the 
system which he finds established with the greatest purity and 
liberality. This glory was certainly deserved by Trajanus ; and 
although he never thought of amending some of the greatest evils 
of the times, yet, as far as his people had suffered from the direct 
tyranny and wastefulness of former governments, his reign was a 
eomplete relief ; and we can easily account for the warm affection 
with which his memory was so long regarded in after ages. He 
pleased the Eomans by observing many of the forms of a free 
constitution j nor ought we to suspect that in so doing he was 
actuated by policy only, for he was quite capable of feeling the 
superior dignity of the magistrate of a free people to that of a 
tyrant; and he most probably spoke from his heart, when, on 



GOVERNMENT OF TRAJAN. 387 

presenting the sword to the Praefect of the Praetorian guards, he Roman 
desired him to use that weapon in his service so long as he SStUneof 
governed well, but to turn it against him if ever he should abuse Trajan, 
his power. 1 There is the same spirit observable in his conduct 
during his third consulship : as soon as he had been elected, he 
walked up to the chair of the Consul who presided at the Comitia, 
and whilst he stood before it, the Consul, without rising from his 
seat, 2 administered to him the usual consular oath, that he would 
discharge his office faithfully. And when his consulship had 
expired, he again took an oath, 3 that he had done nothing, during 
the time that he had held it, which was contrary to law. These 
professions of regard to the welfare of his people were well verified 
by his actions. His suppression of the informers; his discou- 
raging prosecutions under the Leges Majestatis ; his relaxation of 
the tax on inheritances ; and the impartiality with which he suffered 
the law to take its course against his own procurators when they 
were guilty of any abuse of power, were all real proofs of his 
sincerity ; and they were not belied by any subsequent measures at 
a later period of his reign. The causes which were brought before 
himself immediately, he tried with fairness and attention ; 4 and it 
was on an occasion of this kind, when Eurythmus, one of his 
freedmen and procurators, was implicated in a charge of tampering 
with a will, and the prosecutors seemed reluctant to press their 
accusation against a person so connected with the emperor, that he 
observed to them, " Eurythmus is not a Polycletus " (one of the 
most powerful of Nero's freedmen and favourites), "nor am I a 
Nero." In his care of the provinces, and in his answers to the 
questions to him by the younger Pliny when Proconsul of Bithynia, 
he manifested a love of justice, an attention to the comforts of the 
people, and a minute knowledge of the details of the administration, 
which are most highly creditable to him. It is mentioned, too, 
that he was very careful in noticing the good conduct of the officers 
employed in the provinces ; 5 and considered the testimonials of 
regard given by a province to its governor as affording him a just 
title to higher distinctions at Rome. The materials for the history 
of this reign are indeed so scanty that we know scarcely anything 
of the lives and characters of the men who were most distinguished 
under it, nor can we enliven our narrative with many of those 
biographical sketches which, by bringing out individuals in a clear 
and strong light, illustrate most happily the general picture of the age. 
But C. Plinius Csecilius Secundus, whom Trajanus made Proconsul 
of Bithynia, affords one memorable exception ; and we gladly seize 

1 Dion Cassius, Ixviii. 778. Sex. Aur. Victor, in Trajano. 
- Pliny, Panegyric. 64. 3 Ibid. 65. 

4 Pliny, Epist. vi. 31. 5 Pliny, Panegyric. 70. 

C C 2 



388 



ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OP TRAJAN. 




Roman this opportunity to bestow some particular notice on one of the 
hithetimeof most distinguished persons who lived in these times. 
Trajan. C. Plinius C^ecilius Secundus was born at or near Comum, 

Pliny the about the sixth year of the reign of Nero, or a. d. 61. His 
Younger. mother was a sister of C. Plinius, the natural historian ; and as he 

lost his father at an early period, he 
removed with her to the house of his 
uncle, with whom he resided for some 
years, and was adopted by him, and, 
consequently, assumed his name in addi- 
tion to his parental one, Csecilius. He 
appears to have been of a delicate con- 
stitution, and, even in his youth, to have 
possessed little personal activity and 
enterprise ; for, at the time of the 
famous eruption of Vesuvius, when he 
was between seventeen and eighteen, he 
continued his studies at home, and allowed 
his uncle to set out to the mountain 
without him. In literature, however, he 
made considerable progress, according 
to the estimate of those times : he 
composed a Greek tragedy when he was 
only fourteen^and wrote Latin verses on several occasions throughout 
his life ; he attended the lectures of Quinctilianus, 2 and some other 
eminent rhetoricians, and assiduously cultivated his style as an elegant 
writer and an orator. In this latter capacity he acquired great 
credit, and to this cause he was probably indebted for his political 
advancement. He went through the whole succession of public 
offices from that of Qusestor to the high dignities of Consul and 
Augur, and was so esteemed by Trajanus as to be selected by him 
for the government of Bithynia, because there were many abuses 
in that province which required a man of ability and integrity to 
remove them. 3 The trust so honourably committed to him he 
seems to have discharged with great fidelity ; and the attention to 
every branch of his duties, which his letters to Trajanus display, is 
peculiarly praiseworthy in a man of sedentary habits, and accus- 
tomed to the enjoyments of his villas, and the stimulants of 
literary glory at Eome. His character as a husband, a master, 
and a friend, was affectionate, kind, and generous ; he displayed 
also a noble liberality towards his native town Comum, by forming 
a public library there, and devoting a yearly sum of 300,000 
sesterces for ever to the maintenance of children born of free 
parents who were citizens of Comum. A man like Plinius, of 



Pliny the Younger. 



1 Pliny, Panegyric, vii. 4. 



2 Ibid. ii. 1- 



3 Ibid. x. 41. 



PLINY THE YOUNGER. 



389 



considerable talents and learning, possessed of great wealth, and of Roman 
an amiable and generous disposition, was sure to meet with many J^^SjJj 
friends, and with still more who would gratify his vanity by their Trajan. 
praises, and apparent admiration of his abilities. But, as a writer, 
he has done nothing to entitle him to a very high place in the 
judgment of posterity. His Panegyric of Trajanus belongs to a 
class of compositions, the whole object of which was to produce 
a striking effect, and it must not aspire to any greater reward. It 
is ingenious and eloquent, but, by its very nature, it gives no room 
for the exercise of the highest faculties of the mind, nor will its 
readers derive from it any more substantial benefit than the 
pleasure which a mere elegant composition can afford. His Letters 
are valuable to us, as all original letters of other times must be, 
because they necessarily throw much light on the period at which 
they were written. But many of them are ridiculously studied, 
and leave the impression, so fatal to our interest in the perusal of 
such compositions, that they were written for the express purpose 
of publication. In short, the works ol Plinius, compared with the 
reputation which he enjoyed among his contemporaries, seem to 
us greatly to confirm the view which we have taken of the inferiority 
of the literature of this period, and of the unworthy notions 
which were entertained of its proper excellence. 




Column of Trajan. 



390 



MSS., EDITIONS, &c. 



PLINY THE ELDER. 

Ed. Princ. Venetiis. 1469. 

Hardouin. Paris. 1723. 

Panckoucke. Paris. 1829—1833. 1836—1838. 

Sillig. Lips. 1831—1836. 

Translation : — 

Holland. Lond. 1601. 
Subsidia : — 

Salmasii Exercitationes Plinianse (on the Polyhistor of Solimus). 

Disquisitiones Plinianse, ab A. Jos. a Turre Rezzonico. Parmse, 
1763—1767. 

Ajasson de Grandsagne, Notice sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pline 
l'ancien. 



PLINY THE YOUNGER 

Ed. Princ. Yenet. 1485. 

Gesner (a Schafer). Lips. 1805. 

Epistolse, a Cortio et Longolio, Amsdel. 1734. 

Translations : — 

Lord Orrery. 

Melmotb. 



LITERATURE OE THE AGE OF THE 
ANTONINI. 



KEV. J. B. OTTLET, M.A. 

LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



ROMAN AUTHORS OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 



LUCIANUS .' BORN A. D. 124. DIED 204 

PAUSANIAS FLOURISHED CIRCITER A. D. 174 

JULIUS POLLUX 180 

AULUS GELLIUS 130 

CLAUDIUS GALENUS .... BORN A. D. 131. DIED CIRCITER 200 

LUCIUS APULEIUS FLOURISHED CIRCITER 160 

ATHEN^US 220 

MAXIMUS TYRIUS 150 

MARCUS FABIUS QCINCTILIANUS .... BORN A. D. 42. DIED 122 




Antoninus Pius. 



LITERATURE OE THE AGE OE THE ANTONINI. 



In our historical account of the age of the Antonini, 1 no mention 
has been made of its literature. We have, however, seen that the 
love of philosophy and studious pursuits was the ruling passion of Meditati(ms 
Marcus Aurelitjs. His Meditations contain as pure a code of of Marcus 
moral precepts as could be expected from the genius of Paganism, Aure 1US * 
— teaching the immortality of the soul, not as a separate existence, 
but rather as a reunion with the essence of the Deity. 2 This work 
is too well known to require any very particular notice. Some 
Letters of this Emperor are commended by Philostratus as models 
of epistolary style, and a part of his correspondence with Cornelius 
Eronto was lately found among the manuscripts in the Ambrosian 
library at Milan, and published by Angelus Maius in 1815. 

As the example of Aurelius encouraged literature at Home, so Literary 
his bounty rewarded it in the provinces. His own attachment to If™* 8 * 
the Stoics did not prevent his regarding with an eye of favour the Antonini. 



1 In the History of Rome, forming part of the Encyclopaedia Mctropolitana. 
2 Lib. iv. c. 9. 



394 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 




Marcus Auxelius. 



M. Aureiius. patrons of opposite sects : the disciples of Plato, the Peripatetics, 
Stoics, and Epicureans, professors of philosophy and rhetoric, all 
taught their dogmas with equal freedom in the schools of Athens j 
and by the generosity of the Antonines, 
a salary, equal to three hundred pounds 
sterling, was annexed to each Chair of 
Science. 1 This imperial favour, which 
was neither bigoted in its principles, nor 
parsimonious in its supplies, naturally 
encouraged emulation, and accordingly 
we know that many strove, by the ex- 
ercise of literary talents, to deserve well 
of their contemporaries and of posterity. 
But the ravages of time have deprived us 
of great part of their labours ; authentic 
sources of historical knowledge being few 
and imperfect, we are compelled to accept 
our information through the medium of 
abridgments and compilations. Some 
works, however, composed about this time, 
have come down to us in tolerable pre- 
servation ; and, although there does not appear among them 
any master mind whose writings were calculated to influence and 
guide the tone of public feeling, or stamp its own character on 
the pursuits of the age, still they are not without their value. 
The grammarian and philologist are assisted by the labours of 
Julius Pollux ; he who directs his inquiries towards the works 
of art, which at this period were the ornament of Greece, will 
find his researches rewarded in the writings of Pausanias ; while 
the student sees an infinite number of subjects connected with 
antiquity discussed and illustrated in the curious Miscellany of 
Athenseus. Aulus Gellius and Apuleius depart more widely from 
the models of pure style than the Greek writers who lived about 
the same period, Dio Cassius, Maximus Tyrius, and Lucianus. 
Aulus Gellius is obscure ; and in Apuleius, the frequent occurrence 
of abstract nouns is a sign of declining Latinity. Of Dio mention 
has been already made in a preceding paper on the historians of 
Rome, and of Maximus Tyrius we shall have occasion to speak 
shortly. 
Lucianus. But among all the authors of this time, Lucianus stands un- 

questionably first in natural abilities, in originality of character, and 
in playfulness of fancy. Though his talents were not of the very 
highest order, yet in his own line they were unequalled : his chief 
strength lay in ridicule, which, though it is not the test of truth, 
may become an useful auxiliary or a formidable foe to it. 



1 See Gibbon, vol. vii. c. 40, and tbe autborities tbere named. 



LUCIANUS. 



395 



Some of the minor works of Yoltaire abound in that vein of LucianU3 
sarcastic humour which forms the great charm of the writings of 
Lucianus. The French philosopher seems to have persecuted the 
cause of truth with a feeling of personal hostility ; and his raillery- 
has probably been more effectively 
mischievous than the subtle reason- 
ings of Hume : but the powers of 
Lucianus were by accident, and to a 
certain extent, 1 effectively useful ; 
more useful, perhaps, than the 
labours of abler and wiser men. We 
say by accident, because, although 
in an age of free inquiry, the instru- 
ments, which Lucianus employed 
with so much dexterity, were pre- 
cisely adapted to expose sophistry, 
and clear away the rubbish of hea- 
then superstition ; yet he had no 
design so excellent and so important, 
as to establish in their stead the 
fabric of truth and religion. While, 
therefore, we admire his singular 
abilities, we must condemn the man, 
who being by habit and by natural 

inclination studious, by profession a philosopher, and by conviction 2 
a contemner and enemy of the whole system of pagan mythology, 
should nevertheless make Christianity the subject only of con- 
temptuous allusion, 3 rather than of that serious and sober investiga- 
tion, which were fairly demanded even by the number of its converts, 
and the authority of its advocates. 

It is much to be wished that Lucianus, in his various works, had 
communicated more respecting his private life and history. The 
biographical notices, which we find from himself, are scanty, nor 
have we any other sources from which this defect may be supplied. 

We know, however, with certainty, that he was bom at Samosata, 4 His life, 
near the Euphrates ; and since it was necessary that he should earn 
his bread by his own industry, he was placed with his mother's 
brother, 5 who was by profession a statuary. This step was taken 
partly because it was the least expensive, and partly because 
Lucianus had already shown natural genius and dexterity in 
modelling figures in wax. Here he commenced inauspiciously, by 
breaking a tablet ; and, his master having chastised him with severity, 
he quitted his new employment in disgust. The same night he 




1 Erasmus. 

4 Quom. scrib. sit Hist. 



Dialogi Deorum, passim. 
s Soninium. 



In vita. Percarini. 



396 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OP THE ANTONINI. 



Lucianus, 



period, 



and 
character. 



saw a vision ; — the Goddess of Sculpture and the Goddess of 
Polite Literature both appeared before his eyes ; the one covered 
with the dust of the quarries, the other fair in person and elegant in 
her attire. Each proposed her claims, and stated the advantages 
of her respective pursuits ; and when Lucianus determined to 
commit himself to the guidance of the Goddess of Literature, the 
other deity, like a second Niobe, became turned into stone. These 
circumstances form the substance of the treatise De Somnio ; seu 
Luciani Vita : the object of which was to encourage those, whose 
poverty appears to doom them to the walks of laborious life, while 
natural genius justifies them in aspiring to nobler and more intel- 
lectual pursuits. "Though," says Dryden, 1 "it is not to be sup- 
posed that there is anything of reality in this dream or vision of 
Lucian, which he treats of in his works, yet this may be gathered 
from it, that Lucian himself having consulted his genius and the 
nature of the study his father had allotted him, and that to which 
he found a propensity in himself, he quitted the former, and pur- 
sued the latter, choosing rather to form the minds of men than 
their statues." 

The learned Mr. Moyle has taken some pains to adjust the age 
of Lucianus ; and, from some notes of time which are preserved in 
his works, his birth is fixed to the 1 24th year of Christ, and the 
8th of the Emperor Adrian. 2 After his determination to abandon 
the art of sculpture, he taught 3 the art of rhetoric in Gaul, and 
practised it at Antioch; 4 but his pleadings at the bar not being 
attended with success, he betook himself at the age of forty to the 
study of philosophy. He travelled in Italy, Greece, and Asia 
Minor, mixing in the best society. During the latter part of his 
life he became Eegistrar (v7rofjLvr)fjLaToypcL<pos) of Alexandria, 5 which 
post gave him a considerable share in the management of Egypt. 6 
The manner of his death is doubtful, but he is supposed to have 
lived to the age of eighty. 

It happens, unfortunately, that as the biographical notices re- 
specting Lucianus are scanty, so the nature of his works is not 
such as to supply the defect satisfactorily. He appears to have 
resembled his favourite Menippus, who was ^Xeuao-rj)? rJ}? eaiKrjpov 
ml ecfrrj/xepov tcov dvtipomcov £<of}sf and there is a passage in Cicero's 
Academics, wherein Varro is speaking of his own imitation of the 
Menippean satires, which may stand for the character of Lucian's 
works in general : " In illis veteribus nostris, quae, Menippum 
imitati, non interpretati, quadam hilaritate conspersimus, multa 
admista ex intima philosophia, multa dicta dialectice, quae quo 



1 Life of Lucian. 2 Moyle's Works. 3 Hercules Gallicus. 4 Suidas. 

5 Pro mercede conductis. 6 Apologia pro iis qui mercede conducti serviunt. 
7 Antoninus, twv els kavrhv, lib. vi., one who sarcastically mocked the perish- 
able and ephemeral life of man. 



LUCIANUS. 397 

facilius minus docti intelligerent, jucunditate quadam ad legendum Lucianus. 
invitati," &C. 1 He tells us, indeed, that his object was to combine His works, 
the playfulness and wit of comedy with the graver lessons of 
philosophical discussion. Lucianus, however, was more a satirist 
than a philosopher ; and, although he had not the honest indignation 
of Juvenal, although, in polite wit and delicacy of taste, he was 
inferior to Horace, yet he surpassed them both in facetious humour 
and powers of derision. The range of his satire is more extensive, 
and its severity more generally intelligible than that of Aristophanes. 
Aristophanes was a political wit ; and he who would appreciate his 
comedies must possess a minute knowledge of the history of the 
times in which he lived ; of the personal character of the dema- 
gogues whose administration he attacked ; and of the political 
institutions, private habits, and distinguishing peculiarities of the 
audience which he addressed. The pleasantry of Lucianus is 
accessible without so much preparatory study. He had, without 
any real hatred of vice, a quick sense of that part of it which is 
ridiculous : 2 no one saw more clearly the frailties of human nature, 
the " fears of the brave and the follies of the wise : " no one ex- 
posed more happily the vanity of those pursuits in which mankind 
most eagerly engage, 3 the disproportionate sorrow which is suffered 
to arise from disappointment, and the secret vexations which fre- 
quently accompany success. 4 But his lessons, even where they are 
good, are imperfect : they do not suggest any higher pursuits, they 
;do not instil any worthier motive of action, they do not tend to any 
useful exertion : the satirist, in his sketches of life and character, 
borrows freely the pencil of Democritus, and only qualifies his 
pupils to follow that philosopher's employment. It is, indeed, vain 
Ito expect, in the writings of Lucianus, any very high tone of moral 
Ifeeling, or to find virtue, even in the pagan sense of the word, por- 
trayed with the dignity of Aristotle, or recommended by the 
eloquence of Plato. Nevertheless, he had honesty enough to hate 5 
the hypocrisy of pretended philosophers, 6 the arts of casuistical 
rhetoricians, and the subtleties of scholastic logic : 7 he had pene- 
tration enough to see the absurdity of the whole system of pagan 
mythology ; 8 and he possessed an inexhaustible fund of wit and 
humour, to expose these various subjects to the contempt and 
derision of mankind. 

1 Prom, es in verbis. A certain portion of playful wit is sprinkled over those 
earlier works of mine in which I have imitated rather than explained Menippus. 
Many parts of them are drawn from a profound philosophy, many from dialectics, 
mixed, however, with pleasantry, in order that some besides the learned might be 
invited to peruse them. 
i 2 Aristot. Poetica. 3 Nigrinus, et Navigium seu Vota, et Gallus. 

4 Hermotimus, et Necyomantia, et Navigium, et Gallus. 

5 Hermotimus et Piscator. 6 Rhetorum Preceptor. 7 Vitarum Auctio. 
8 Jupiter confutatus, et de Sacrificiis, et Dialogi Deoruin et Concio Dcorum. 



398 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Lucianus. But in the cultivation and use of these dangerous and fascinating 

talents, truth and falsehood were patronised by turns, as they 
afforded materials for the display of ingenuity, or the excitement of 
mirth : the plainest 1 and most important truths of natural religion 
are treated by him with the same levity as the grossest follies of 
heathen superstition; the existence of the Deity, 2 the duty of 
worship, and the administration of a Providence, are involved in the 
same ridicule with the characters and actions of the fabulous inhabi- 
tants of Olympus. In the dialogue intituled Jupiter Tragcedus, the 
cause of natural religion is betrayed by a feeble and frivolous 
defence. Whether Lucianus here intended to express his own 
sentiments under the character of Dainis, is uncertain : he dedicated 
his Alexander, or ^vho^avTis, to Celsus, who was an Epicurean ; 
and, in the same treatise, he calls the founder of that sect " an 
instructor really divine, the only one who understood and taught 
the system of truth and virtue, and gave freedom to the minds of 
his followers : " moreover, 3 the highest honours in the land of the 
blessed are allotted to Epicurus and his follower, Aristippus; 
whereas, in the Vitarum Audio, the former is sold for two minae, 
and the latter finds no purchaser. From the unsparing ridicule of 
this and some other dialogues, 4 Lucianus was accused of being the 
enemy of philosophy ; and he attempts to defend himself from this 
charge in the Reviviscejites, or Piscator. Here an inquiry is sup- 
posed to be instituted, over which the Goddess of Philosophy pre- 
sides, and Diogenes, in the name of his brethren, is appointed to 
conduct the prosecution. Lucianus argues, on his own behalf, that 
false philosophy alone was the object of his sarcasms, and that he 
designed to expose the degenerate followers of the ancient sages, 
who had corrupted the purity of their doctrines, and who pursued 
the good things of this world as eagerly as their less learned neigh- 
bours. The court is satisfied, and the dialogue ends with a tale of 
considerable drollery and humour. 

In the prodigal exercise of his satire, Lucianus does not even 
spare himself. His observations addressed to Timocles, on the 
folly and domestic wretchedness of those who become inmates of 
the families of the rich, as tutors, philosophers, or humble com- 
panions, besides being a curious and interesting sketch of the 
manners of the times, breathe throughout a spirit of manly inde- 
pendence : but when he grew old, and had accepted a place under 
Government, he satirises his own apparent inconsistency with as 
much serenity as his enemies could wish, and with far more caustic 
merriment than they could furnish. Then he adds his own excuse 
for his own conduct, and, to speak the truth, a very fair and sensible 
apology it is. 5 

1 Jupiter Tragcedus. 2 De Sacrificiis, 3 Verse Historise, lib. ii. 

4 Hermotimus. 5 'AnoXoyia nepl twv eV2 uicrOa avv6vT(av. 



luciaxus. 399 

As the ruling passion of Lucianus prevented his adopting, Lucianus. 
in earnest, any set of philosophical tenets, so also did it affect 
his taste in literature. In no other writer do we see more strongly- 
exhibited that unequivocal mark of exuberant wit and defective 
taste, a fondness for parody, a delight in degrading passages of true 
poetry, by the apposition of ludicrous and low images ; although he 
could write with good feeling and good sense, 1 he always seems 
impatient of the restraint of serious composition. His sketch of 
the character of Demonax 2 is beautifully drawn ; but he soon 
betakes himself to relate that philosopher's bon-mots and repartees. 
His remarks on the manner in which history should be written are 
sensible and just : he appears to have appreciated duly the inimi- 
table excellence of Thucydides ; and he inveighs strongly against 
the historians of his own time, for their ignorance of the proper 
object of historical composition, their utter disregard of truth, their 
base flattery, their false estimate of the comparative importance of 
events, and the prolixity and impertinence of their descriptions. 
But after a few pages in this rational and serious strain, he proceeds 
to expose the lying wonders of historians, and the fictions of poetry, 
in another treatise, which is called, in derision, Vera Historia. 
Here he relates his being absorbed and buried in the bowels of an 
immense pit, his journey to the moon, and his visit to the shades 
below. On this occasion, 3 as on many others, Homer comes in 
for his full share of ridicule. Lucianus was familiar with the Iliad 
and Odyssey ; and, without having enough of poetical taste fully to 
appreciate their excellence, he had discernment enough to perceive 
their minutest faults. Many of these, which ought to be ascribed 
to the age rather than to the poet, are brought into notice with 
considerable humour ; and he must be indeed fastidious who has 
not sometimes found himself laughing with Lucianus at the expense 
of the Mseonian bard. 

The style of Lucianus is easy and perspicuous, and the subjects His style. 
on which he touches are miscellaneous : some of these are, in them- 
selves, highly objectionable ; and even where they are not, we find 
many coarse and indelicate expressions and allusions, the fault of 
which may, with justice, be attributed to the evil moral taste of his 
age. The Dialogues of the Dead are entertaining, though they 
exhibit little diversity of character, and though their highest strain 
of morality inculcates only the pagan precept, " Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die." The Life of Peregrinus Proteus may Peregrinus. 
be read with interest ; caution, however, is necessary, for, as 
Lardner has observed, the treatise contains some misrepresentations, 
A either wilful or undesigned : Lucianus is the only author who has 

1 Nigrinus, et Imagines. 2 Demonactis vita. 

3 Contcniplantcs, Timon, et Dialogi. 



400 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Lucianus. made this rambling philosopher a Christian. That Lucianus was an 
enemy of Christianity is true, inasmuch as he esteemed all religion 
a compound of fraud and folly : he speaks, however, the language of 
contempt rather than of enmity ; it does not appear that he perse- 
cuted the professors of the true faith with any particular or personal 
hostility, nor had he taken much pains to acquaint himself with 
their distinguishing tenets. 

In 1714, Gesner held a disputation at Jena, to prove that the 

PMiopatris. treatise entitled PMiopatris was not written by Lucianus, because 
it shows a more minute knowledge of the doctrines and Scriptures 
of the Christians than can be traced in those works which are con- 
fessedly genuine. In the account of the death of Peregrinus, 
Lucianus says of the Christians, " They worship even now that 
great man who was crucified in Palestine, because he introduced 
this new system of religion." And again, " These ill-fated men 
(ol Ka/coSai/ioi/es) persuade themselves that they shall live for ever, 
wherefore they disregard, and in many cases voluntarily seek death. 
They live as brethren, having their possessions in common, and 
regulating their lives according to the laws of that same crucified 
sophist of theirs (tou aviarKokoTna^vov e<eluou cro(pi(rTr}v avroov) whom 
they worship." 

But the author of the PMiopatris knew much more respecting 
the Christians than these passages imply. The dialogue is con- 
ducted between Critias and Tisiphon, one being a professed Heathen, 
and the other an Epicurean personating a Christian. The design is 
partly to represent the Christians as a sect disaffected to govern- 
ment, and dangerous to civil society, and partly to expose some of 
their peculiar opinions. We find clear allusions to the Book of 
Genesis, and several other parts of the Scriptures, l on the subject 
of the Creation, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the ceremony of 
Baptism. On these grounds Gesner would reject the PMiopatris 
from the works of Lucianus ; and Mr. Moyle argues on the same 
side, from the political events which the dialogue mentions, namely, 
the conquest of the Scythians, the reduction of Egypt, and a victory 
over the Persians. " These," he says, 2 " can never be applied to 
the reign of Antoninus ; nor, indeed, to that of any other emperor, 
except of Dioclesian, in whose reign they all met together, in the 
same order of time as they are set down, as may easily be seen ; 
but more particularly in the Ch'onicon of Eusebius, who places the 
wars with the Scythians, and the reduction of Egypt many years 
before the great victory obtained over Narseus, King of Persia, in 
the year of Christ 302, and twenty-three years before the Council of 
Nice, at which time I do verily believe this dialogue was written." 
Nor is the PMiopatris the only spurious treatise which has come 
down to us in company with the works of Lucianus. The critics 

1 Lardner. 2 Vol. i. p. 292. 



LUCIANUS. — PAUSANIAS. 401 

have observed that Demost/ienis Encomium is devoid of his Lucianus. 
wit, elegance, and perspicuity. The Pseudosophistce, Fugitivi, 
Charidemus, Nero and Ocypus are rejected ; and also the Amoves, 
by Bourdelotius and Kuster. The manner of Lucianus has been 
imitated in French by Fontenelle, and in Latin by Erasmus. 
The latter was a great admirer of his works, some of which he 
translated. 

Suidas mentions two persons of the name of Pausanias, one Pausanias. 

being a Laconian, and the other a native of Caesarea, in Cappadocia : 

the topographer probably was not the former of these ; for his 

reflections on the Laconians are severe, and his style approaches the 

Ionic rather than the Doric. There is reason to suppose he was 

the second mentioned by Suidas ; the same whom Galen calls the 

Syrian Sophist, and a disciple of Herodes Atticus. From his works 

we know very little of himself or his family : he was alive in the 

fourteenth year of Marcus Aurelius : he travelled through Greece, 

Macedon, Italy, and part of Asia ; having also visited the Oracle 

' of Jupiter Ammon, Palestine, and the Dead Sea. Fabricius 

! enumerates in the catalogue of the lost works of Pausanias, 

j geographical treatises respecting Asia, Syria, and Phoenicia, 

together with others entitled — 1. fiekhai, or Declamations ; 

! 2. 7repi avvra^eois ; 3. 7rpo^\r}fxarcov /3t/3XtW ; 4. Attikcou ovopaTcav 

crvvaycoyf). 

The work of Pausanius- which has come down to us is divided 
! into ten books, of which two are devoted to a description of Elis, 
j and one to each of the following districts — Attica, Corinthia, Laco- 
I nia, Messenia, Achaia, Arcadia, Bceotia, and Phocis. The painter, 
i the architect, and the antiquary will find much that is interesting in 
j the minute and curious details which are given respecting the 
ancient relics of brecian temples, buildings, and statues. These 
passages have been selected by Uvedale Price, translated into 
English, and published in one octavo volume. The fidelity of the 
geographical descriptions of Pausanias is thus acknowledged by a 
modern traveller : — " On arriving from Albania, in the Morea, you 
quit a region little known at any time, for one which the labours of 
ancients and moderns have equally contributed to illustrate ; and, 
after wandering in uncertainty, you acknowledge the aid of faithful 
guides, who direct every footstep of your journey. Pausanias alone 
i will enable you to feel at home in Greece. The exact conformity of 
I present appearances with the minute descriptions of the Itinerary, is 
no less surprising than satisfactory. The temple and the statue, 
j the theatre, the column, and the marble porch have sunk and dis- 
x appeared ; but the valleys and the mountains, and some not unfre- 
' quent fragments of more value than all the rude and costly monu- 
ments of barbaric labour; these still remain, and remind the 
[r. l.] d d 



402 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 



Pausanias. 



Julius 
Pollux. 



traveller that lie treads tlie ground once trod by the heroes and 
sages of antiquity." 1 

The historian will find in the fourth book of Pausanias, an account 
of the wars between the Messenians and Lacouians ; and of those, 
moreover, which took place on the death of Alexander, between 
Perdiccas, Ptolemy, and Cassander : various observations are intro- 
duced throughout the work on ancient games, festivals, offerings, 
&c, &c, and many oracles are recorded, with their supposed 
accomplishment. Taylor, who has made the whole work of 
Pausanias accessible to the English reader, says, 2 these " Oracles 
may be considered as a treasure of popular evidence for the truth of 
his religion : for if it be admitted that they w r ere given, and such 
events happened as are here related, it is impossible such a series 
of predictions could be true by casual concurrence." Such admis- 
sions, however, are to be made with caution ; and when we have 
set aside from among the ancient oracles those the date of which is 
doubtful, those the terms of which are ambiguous, and those which 
had a natural tendency to work their own accomplishment, " this 
treasure of popular evidence " will be materially reduced. Some 
notion of Taylor's candour may be formed from the following 
passage. His notes to Pausanias were added to preserve the 
knowledge of the ancient Theology of the later Platonists ; " these," 
he says, " are considered by verbal critics and sophistical priests 
as fanatics, but the discerning reader knows that the former never 
read a book but in order to make different readings of the words 
in it, and that the latter wilfully pervert the meaning in some 
places, and ignorantly in others, of every valuable author, whether 
ancient or modern." 

The style of Pausanias is abrupt and intricate, rude and 
unpolished : a variety of grammatical anomalies are collected in 
the notes of Sylburgius. 

Julius Pollux, a Lexicographer, was born at Naucratis, in 
Egypt, a city situated not far from the Canopic mouth of the Nile. 
He flourished in the reign of Commodus, to whom he addressed a 
work in ten Books, called Onomasticon, intended, as he himself tells 
us, to be a vocabulary of select synonyms with, authorities. He 
filled the Rhetorical chair at Athens, and was the author of other 
works now lost ; some were entitled diakegeis, some fieXirai : of 
these Philostratus criticises the style as inelegant, and Athenodorus 
the matter as puerile. Julius Pollux is called by Isaac Casaubon, 
" Optimus, utilissimus, eruditissimus." 3 The arrangement of the 
Onomasticon is not alphabetical; this will be evident to any one 
who examines the following heads, which form the subjects of the 
second Book. 1. Hominum setates et vocabula. 2. Quae sunt 



1 Hobhouse, Journey through Albania, &c. 

3 " Most excellent, useful, and learned. 



Taylor, Preface. 



AULUS GELLIUS. 403 

ante generationern et quae sunt post generation em. 3. Hominum 
membra et partes. 4. Partes externse et internse. 5. Quae 
singulis partibus congruunt nominum frequentissimus usus. 

The work of Aulus Gellius remaining to us may be called an Auiu 
ancient commonplace-book. It is introduced to the attention of GeUius - 
the reader by a preface commencing with this very candid remark, 
" Jucundiora alia reperiri queant ; " after which he who continues 
his researches without finding entertainment, has no reason to be 
discontented with the author. Aulus Gellius goes on to explain 
the character of his work, and the intention with which it was com- 
posed. He tells us, that it was written to employ those hours of 
recreation which business allowed to his children. Whenever, in 
the course of his studies, he met with anything either in Greek or 
Koman literature, or amidst the intercourse of society, which seemed 
worthy of notice, he transferred it to his tablets, together with his 
own remarks, without any system or methodical arrangement : 
this habit assisted his memory, and enabled him to recover facts 
and opinions, if the books from which they were originally derived 
lay at any time beyond his reach. The title Nodes Attica, was 
suggested by the time and place of the compilation : its simplicity 
is consistent with the tone of modesty which runs through the pre- 
face, and is contrasted strongly with those pompous titles, which 
he says it was customary to annex to works of this description. 
The object of this author's work, namely, to employ on innocent 
and useful subjects the leisure hours of his children, must be con- 
fessed to be excellent, although we may not admire the taste 
displayed in the choice of his materials. Unless the children of 
Aulus Gellius inherited their father's taste for the studies of a 
Grammarian, they would not find much relaxation or pleasure in 
great part of his literary labours ; especially since there is little 
elegance or felicity of style to relieve the general dryness of the matter. 
The book abounds in quotations from old writers, from Ennius, 
Attius, Quadrigarius, Nsevius, Csecilius, Menander, and others. It 
is divided into twenty Books, the eighth being lost, and these are 
again subdivided into short chapters on miscellaneous subjects. 
Some contain Literary, Historical, and Biographical Anecdotes ; 
others, old Epitaphs, Epigrams, and Proverbs, explanations of legal 
and other technical terms, and phrases in familiar use, together 
with their probable Etymology, or observations on the quantity of 
words, and the correct modes of writing and pronouncing them. 
One chapter records a ludicrous disputation between two celebrated 
grammarians in Rome, relating to the vocative case of Egre<jiio>, 
whether it should be egregie or egregi. In connection with gram- 
matical and etymological questions, we hear much of GabiusBassus, 
who wrote De Origine Vocahdorum, of Nigidius, of Cornutus, and 
Hyginus ; it should, however, be added, that when the cavils of 

dd 2 



404 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 



Aulus 
Gellius. 



Galenus. 



the two latter are directed against Virgil, Aulus Gellius has 
generally the good taste to defend the poet. His mind certainly 
inclined much towards verbal criticism ; he takes delight in vindi- 
cating, by the authority of very old writers, phrases which appear 
grammatical anomalies, and in reviving the memory of obsolete words, 
such as memordi, cecurri, spespondi, and descendidi, instead of the 
more classical forms, momordi, cucurri, spospondi, and descendi. 
Still there are many chapters which are interesting and curious. 

The authenticity of the titles of the several chapters has been 
attacked by H. Stevens, and defended by Falster : the student who 
desires more information respecting Aulus Gellius may consult with 
advantage a Dissertation prefixed to the Criticce Lucubrationes of 
Lambecius. 

The celebrated Galenus was born at Pergamus : his father Nicon 
enjoyed an ample fortune ; and, having cultivated his own mind, and 

thus knowing by experience the value 
of a superior education, placed his 
son under the tuition of the best 
masters. Accordingly, Galenus passed 
successively through the systems 
recommended by the Stoics, Academics, 
Peripatetics, and Epicureans ; the 
philosophy of the latter he rejected 
without hesitation. This extensive 
acquaintance with the opinions of 
different sects operated advantage- 
ously on his mind, by producing a 
disinclination to attach himself exclu- 
sively to any set of instructors, — 
a disposition which he carried to 
the studies of his maturer years. His mind being thus preserved 
from bigotry, and ready to admit from every quarter sound 
principles and just inferences, he did not, after the example of 
preceding physicians, follow blindly any of the sects existing in his 
day, namely, the Methodic, Dogmatic, or Empiric, but determined 
to select and appropriate that which appeared valuable in each. 
From a very early age, Galenus had suffered from weakness of 
digestion ; and the necessity of habitual attention to various kinds 
of diet and their effects, and experience of the symptoms of internal 
disorders and their consequences, may have contributed to lead his 
mind to pursue the study of medicine at large, and to grasp that 
science in a manner more methodical and comprehensive than pre- 
ceding writers had done. This might have been one cause of his 
determination to physic; a dream of his father is assigned as 
another : Galenus certainly was superstitious. On one occasion, he 
says, " Being afflicted with a fixed pain in that part where the 




Gaien. 



GALEXUS. 405 

diaphragm is fastened to the liver, I dreamed that iEsculapius Gaienus. 
advised me to open that artery which lies between the thumb and 
second finger of my right hand. I did so, and immediately found 
myself well." In another instance, we find him prescribing a 
gargle of lettuce juice, in consequence of a similar dream. Gaienus, 
however, at the age of seventeen, brought to his professional 
pursuits two qualities which carry their possessor far in any career ; 
a zeal in the pursuit of knowledge which no difficulties alarmed, 
and a confidence in his own talents which knew no bounds. He 
visited, in pursuit of professional information, Cilicia, Palestine, 
Crete, and Cyprus ; and remaining some time at Alexandria, made 
himself acquainted with the nature of the nerves, and discovered a 
new way of healing injuries of them. On his return to Pergamus 
at the age of twenty-eight, he applied his method to wounded 
gladiators with great success. At the expiration of four years, in 
consequence of some seditious disturbance, he betook himself to 
Eome, where his skill secured him some powerful patrons, among 
whom were Eudemus, a Peripatetic philosopher, and Severus, after- 
wards Emperor ; while, at the same time, it excited the envy and 
opposition of rival practitioners. Their machinations, together with 
a dread of the plague, drove Gaienus again to Pergamus. Scarcely 
had he arrived when he was summoned to Aquileia by the Emperors 
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Yerus. The latter died, and 
Gaienus again visited Eome. His reputation rising rapidly, and 
the Capital offering ample apportunities for the practice of his art 
and the prosecution of his studies, he was naturally unwilling to 
accompany Aurelius in his expedition against the Marcomanni. 
He had the address to excuse himself under the pretence of a dream 
from iEsculapius, who, in the visions of the night, forbade his 
leaving Eome. About this time he composed his celebrated treatise 
Be Usu Partium ; in which he proves, against the philosophy of 
Epicurus, from the frame of the human body, the wisdom, power, 
and goodness of the Creator. Of this tract, which coincides in 
its details with one part of Paley's well-known Natural Theology, it 
is not too much to say, that, even in the present advanced state 
of medical science, it may be read with advantage ; and at a period 
when infidelity was fashionable, Gaienus deserves praise for having 
thrown into the opposite scale the weight of his abilities and science. 
The facility with which he wrote is proved by the great extent 
and variety of his works. "VYe learn from Suidas, that some of 
these were on Geometry and Grammar ; two books he compiled as 
a mere catalogue of the rest, recording the time, place, order, and 
motive of their composition. Of these works, part were lost in a 
fire at the Temple of Peace, but a considerable number are pre- 
served. It has been before observed, that Gaienus did not so far 
addict himself to any sect as to follow its opinions implicitly ; in 



406 



LITEPATUPE OP THE AGE OF THE ANTONIXI. 



Galenus. 



Other 

medical 

writers. 



Lucius 
Apuleius. 



fact, his vanity often betrayed him into intemperate language re- 
specting his contemporaries and predecessors. Yet he seems to 
have thought very highly of Hippocrates ; 1 at the same time 
assuming to himself the credit of being the first to understand and 
explain that great author's system, and supply his defects. Between 
Hippocrates and Galenus there is this difference : the works of the 
first consist chiefly of facts observed by himself or others ; those of 
the latter are Reasonings and Hypotheses, and therefore have 
furnished more matter of dispute. Galenus's system was ingenious : 
when he illustrates any part of Hippocrates, we are indebted to his 
sagacity and industry ; when he harangues respecting faculties, 
spirits, and occult causes, he reasons well from principles false or 
precarious, and therefore leaves us in the dark. 

Vanity in writing respecting himself, and affectation in dis- 
claiming praise, are his chief blemishes ; the superiority of his 
talents and the valuable additions he made to the stock of medical 
science might safely have been left to be appreciated by the judg- 
ment of posterity. Eusebius tells us that the respect paid to his 
memory amounted almost to veneration. His successors were 
Oribasius, JElius, Alexander, and Trallianus Mysepsus, of whom 
Dr. Eriend says, " they did not compile so as to have nothing at 
all new, and what we may call their own, in their very voluminous 
works ; for, though I must confess there are not a great many things 
in them in proportion to the bulk of their books, but such as may 
be found in Galenus and others, yet some there are, too, in regard 
to the real improvement of the art itself." Of these writers, 
Oribasius made large extracts from the works of Galenus, and 
Trallianus calls him most divine. Simplicius, moreover, styles him 
Oav/ju'urios Ka\ TroXyfiaOeararos : and Athenseus introduces Galenus 
as one of the guests at his banquet. The place and circumstances 
of his death are not known with accuracy ; Eabricius conjectures 
that he lived till the seventh year of Severus, and the seventieth of 
his own life. 

Lucius Apuleius was a Platonic philosopher, born at Madaura, 
a Eoman colony in Africa. The date of his birth is not known 
with accuracy, but the names of Lollianus Avitus and Lollius 
Urbicus, and the omission of the title Divus, before the name of 
Antoninus Pius, enable us to ascertain that he flourished under 
this Emperor. His mother's name was Salvia, and he inherited 
from his father Theseus respectability of family and a considerable 
fortune. The latter, however, was soon exhausted by the expenses 
of foreign travel, which his zeal in the pursuit of knowledge in- 
duced him to incur ; he tells us, moreover, in his Apology ', that 
much of it was spent in acts of benevolence and charity. His early 



Method. Medendi, lib. ix. 



LUCIUS APULEIUS. 407 

studies were conducted at Carthage, where he imbibed that taste for Lucius 
the Platonic philosophy which was confirmed by a residence at A P ulems - 
Athens. At that celebrated seat of learning he passed through the 
schools of grammar and rhetoric, and he gives in the following 
metaphorical sentence an account of his subsequent studies : — 
" Hactenus a plerisque potatur; ego et alias crateras Athenis His studies. 
bibi, Poeticae commentam, Geometriae limpidam, Musicae dulcem, 
Dialecticae austerulam, enimverb universae Philosophiae inexplebilem 
scilicet nectaream." * Engaged in the pursuit of learning, he 
spared nor time, nor health, nor fortune ; and his diligence is 
attested by the number and variety of the works which he com- 
posed. Of these, there remain at present, 1. A Treatise De Dogmate His works. 
Platonis, in three books ; the first on Natural Philosophy, the 
second on Moral Philosophy, and the third on the Categorical 
Syllogism. 2. A Treatise De Deo Soc?'atis, inferior, though not 
unlike to one by Maximus Tyrius on the same subject. 3. A 
Treatise De Mmido. After these come eleven books of the Meta- 
morplioseon, better known to the literary world under the title of 
the Golden Ass. Besides this, we have his Apology, or vindication 
of himself from a charge of magic, (the circumstances of which we 
shall soon have occasion to mention ;) and, lastly, a composition 
called Florida, which seems to consist of passages from speeches 
delivered at Carthage, extracted by some of his admirers, 2 and put 
together without care or 1 connection. 

The works of Apuleius which are now lost were numerous, both 
in Greek and Latin : he wrote history, dialogues, epistles, orations, 
proverbs, various compositions in verse, epigrams, 3 satires, together 
with lyric and dramatic poetry. He, moreover, turned his mind to 
speculations on medicine, politics, arithmetic, and philology ; and, 
amidst such numerous and opposite pursuits, still found leisure for 
jocose subjects called " Ludicra" 4 and for questions adapted to 
provoke the ingenuity of convivial 5 discussion, called ypl<poi or 
enigmas. 6 

After leaving Athens, Apuleius came to Rome, where, by diligent His life. 
and unassisted labour, he acquainted himself with the Latin lan- 
guage ; he studied also the principles of Eoman jurisprudence, in 
which he made such proficiency as to be enabled to support himself 
by pleading causes. But before his success at the Bar he had lived 
in great poverty ; in Greece he had been initiated into many of the 
mysteries of pagan worship, and at Rome, being desirous of 
enrolling himself among the votaries of Osiris, we find him driven 

1 Florida. " Thus much most people drink. I quaffed other cups at Athens : 
the cup of poetry adulterated, that of geometry clear, that of music sweet, of 
dialectics somewhat sour, but that of universal philosophy nectar inexhaustible." 

8 Joann. Woweri, Prcefatio. 3 Ausonius. 

4 Nonius. 5 Macrobius, Sat. 6 Derived from ypliros, a net. 



408 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Lucius to great extremities to defray the necessary cost. 1 But no sacrifice 
Apuiems. was j. 00 g rea ^ if j£ would facilitate his favourite pursuit ; and, 
indeed, in various parts of his works, he speaks with the most 
philosophical contempt of wealth as compared with the acquisition 
of knowledge. 2 His industry and talents, as they met with pro- 
fessional success at Rome, so were they rewarded at Carthage, and 
at Ma, by marks of public respect ; at Madaura, too, he tells us, 
he held the situation of Duumvir, which had been previously 
occupied by his father. His fortunes, however, were chiefly ad- 
vanced by a marriage with a rich widow, named Pudentilla ; which, 
though it appears to have been contracted with the consent, and 
even planned at the suggestion, of her son Pontianus, did never- 
theless involve Apuleius in a vexatious litigation. iEmilianus, the 
brother of Pudentilla's first husband, accused our author of having 
gained possession of his wife's affections and fortunes by the arts 
of magic, and accordingly a trial of the question took place before 
Claudius Maximus, Proconsul of Africa. The speech of Apuleius 
on this occasion yet remains, and although it may excite a smile at 
the nature of the proofs which were brought to support the charge 
of magic, still we must remember that similar absurdities are found 
in connection with this imaginary crime at a much later period, and 
in an age which the progressive march of knowledge ought to have 
rendered wiser. The facts urged against Apuleius were his per- 
sonal attractions, his habits of versification, and his having com- 
posed a poem on the sons of Scribonius Lsetus, his possession of a 
mirror, his purchasing a rare fish and dissecting the same, and the 
circumstance of a youth having fallen to the ground in his presence. 
The defendant disposed of these several weighty accusations with 
considerable wit and humour, ascribing some of the facts to his 
good fortune, some to his poetical taste, and others to his well- 
known zeal in the pursuits of natural history. He then proceeded 
to meet the imputation of having been induced by mercenary 
motives to seek the hand of Pudentilla, alleging, first, that the pro- 
posal originally came from her son, and was long rejected as being 
an impediment to his intentions of foreign travel ; and, secondly, 
by asserting that, at his own particular instigation, the property in 
question had been given at the time, and was ultimately bequeathed, 
to the family with whom he had connected himself, in a greater 
degree than they had any reason to expect. This part of the 
speech gives us the sentiments of an honest man expressed in a 
style which, if it is not remarkably elegant, does not justify the 
satirical remark of Melanchthon, that the Latinity of Apuleius was 
like the braying of his own ass. This allusion applies to the 
Metamorplwseon ; in which the author commences by apologising 

1 Metam. lib. xi. 2 Apologia. 



LUCIUS APULEIUS. 409 

for his defective style, and prepares his reader for a Grecian tale Lucius 
after the manner of the Milesian Fabulists. He then proceeds to A P uleius - 
relate what befel him at Hypata, in Thessaly, where he became the 
guest of a celebrated Magician ; and, in an unfortunate attempt to 
imitate the transformations which he had witnessed, he mixed the 
magical ingredients unskilfully, and, instead of assuming the shape 
of a bird, he found himself suddenly changed into an ass. Under The Golden 
this shape, he passes through a variety of adventures, which are Ass ' 
put together with little art, and, for the most part, have small pre- 
tensions to character, invention, wit, or humour. However, some 
of the circumstances (as Dunlop has observed 1 ) have been borrowed 
by modern novelists. Two of the stories introduced are to be 
found in Boccaccio. The adventure of the wine-skins in Don 
Quixote, and that of the Bobber's cavern in Gil Bias, may be, with 
some probability, traced to the same source. 

Apuleius professes that his MetamorpJioseon is a work of amuse- 
ment ; tales for the gratification of a thirsty curiosity. " At ego 
tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram, auresque tuas 
bibulas lepido susurro permulceam." Accordingly, Severus and 
Macrobius assigned the work no higher province than to excite the 
surprise of the young, or beguile the tedious hours of age ; and 
later critics 2 have considered it only as a satirical representation of 
the vices of his time. But Bishop Warburton, whose extent and 
variety of knowledge might have made him a safer guide if they 
had been employed less frequently in supporting paradox, has found 
in this composition a store of philosophical wisdom, and has 
pressed it with great ingenuity into the service of the Divine Lega- 
tion (see Book ii., sec. 4). He characterises the author as " one of 
the gravest and most virtuous, as well as one of the most learned 
philosophers of his age," and endeavours to show that the object of 
the MetamorpJwseon was to recommend pagan religion, and parti- 
cularly initiation into the mysteries, as " the only cure for all vice 
whatsoever." Now the greater part of the incidents are copied 
from a tale of Lucian, entitled fj 6W, which Photius tells us was 
written to ridicule the pagan religion ; and if this was its popular 
character, Apuleius surely would have found a better model on 
which he might form his intended vindication. Where the resem- 
blance was so great, that one might almost be called a translation 
of the other, men would naturally suppose the end proposed could 
not be very different. It is true that Apuleius was a great admirer 
of the mysteries of heathen superstition, and has casually introduced 
I some contemptuous allusions to Christianity ; but if his thoughts 
j had been set on so excellent a design as the discovery of a remedy 
for all vice whatsoever, his knowledge and abilities would have 

1 History of Fiction, vol. i. 2 Bayle, Flcuri. % 



410 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE AXTOXINT. 



Lucius 
Apuleius. 



Athenoeus. 



suggested a more effectual method. For a moral which was so 
concealed under the veil of allegory, that it remained undiscovered 
for several centuries, could not be expected to remedy the mis- 
chievous effects of those idle and indecent stories of which the 
Metamorphoseon mainly consists. 

That part of the work which does Apuleius most credit, namely, 
the beautiful fable of Cupid and Psyche, is not taken from Lucian. 
Perhaps the materials were borrowed from the stores of Egyptian 
mythology, 1 but the mode in which they are here put together 
shows delicacy of taste and a poetical imagination. 2 This " Philo- 
sophical Allegory of the progress of Virtue towards perfection," as 
it may have been the prototype of some of the fairy tales which 
entertain our childhood, so is it well known to the lovers of the fine 
arts : for it has furnished to the engraver of antique gems, and to 
the ancient sculptors, some of their most beautiful subjects, while 
in later days it has employed the pencil of Ptaphael and the chisel 
of Canova. This fable has also been imitated in an old French 
romance, called Partenopex de Plois, and is well known to the 
Euglish reader by Mrs. Tighe's exquisite adaptation of it, and 
Mr. Rose's elegant versification of the tale of Partenopex. 

Athen^eus, a celebrated grammarian, was born at Naucratis, in 
Egypt, and flourished early in the third century. He was the 
author of a very learned work, entitled Aemvoaocfrio-Tai, Eraditi viri 
ccenantes ; the plan of which, however improbable, was well adapted 
to communicate the stores of curious and miscellaneous information, 
which various and extensive reading had enabled Athenseus to 
collect. Larensius, a rich and literary Ptoman, is supposed to 
collect at his hospitable table learned men of various professions, 
poets, lawyers, grammarians, physicians, rhetoricians, and musicians, 
and their conversations are related to Timocrates by our author. 
The courses of the banquet suggest the subjects, in connexion with 
which are introduced passages from historians, poets, philosophers, 
orators, and philologists, on a variety of topics almost infinite : 
for example, on fish, vegetables, living things, musical instruments, 
cups, and fruits ; on Italian, Greek, and Egyptian wines ; on the 
qualities of various kinds of water ; on water-drinkers ; on the diet 
of Homer's heroes ; also, on natural history ; on curious inventions ; 
on customs and habits of private life, especially among the Greeks. 
Interspersed with these subjects are instances of ingenious parody, 
and proverbs, which, together with many anecdotes and stories, are 
still current in the world. He who borrowed so largely from 
others, furnished in his turn materials for later writers ; Macrobius 
imitated his plan in the composition of the Saturnalia, parts of 
which are evidently taken from the AetTri/oo-o^to-rat. 3 



1 Bryant. 



3 Confer, lib. v. c. 21, -with Ath. ii. 474. 



"Warburton. 



ATHEXJETJS. — MAXIMTTS TYEITJS. 411 

But, in the estimation of the scholar, this vast compilation of Athenams. 
Athenseus derives, perhaps, its chief value from the immense 
number of citations which he has introduced from various authors. 
Some of these passages, explanatory of rare and obscure words, are 
from works which have not come down to us ; others are useful to 
later commentators, in correcting the errors and supplying the 
defects of ancient manuscripts : we owe, moreover, to Athenteus 
many of the fragments of Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, 
Menander, and Philemon, which have been edited, besides parts of 
the Poetarum Analecta. Philology was certainly a favourite pursuit 
of Athenseus, and reference is frequently made to him by Eustathius, 
Suidas, Hesychius, and others. Hemsterhusius very justly styles 
! him " subactus si quisquam in libris veterum evolvendis, et idem 
i diligens singularium vocum captator." l 

The manuscripts of the Aeinvoo-ocfricrTai are few and defective : 
Casaubon, to whose stores of learning the readers of Athensens are 
indebted for much valuable emendation and illustration, confesses 
i in a letter to a friend the extreme difficulty of his undertaking, 
" Hoc dico tantmn, absolvisse me tandem, virtute Dei Optimi 
Maximi, molestissimum, difficillimum, et taedii plenissimum opus, 
animadversiones in Athenseum." The first and second books are 
known to us only by an epitome. Casaubon knew not by whom, 
or at what time, this abridgment was made, but conjectures that it 
was done before the days of Eustathius : it is well executed, for 
: not only are extracts made, but the system of the larger work is 
preserved ; the references, however, ought to have been more fully 
and distinctly made than they are. 

Those who are desirous of more information respecting Athenaeus 

! may consult Schweighauser ; this critic had access to two manu- 

: scripts which were not known in Casaubon's time, one of which, 

: called the Veneta-Parisiensis, he considers the oldest we have : his 

edition of the Aenrvoo-ocfiio-Tai with a preface, notes, and a Latin 

translation, is in repute among the learned. Kespecting prior 

editions, see Bayle's Dictionary, Art. Atlienee. 

We have already made slight mention of Maximtjs Tyrius. Maximns 
! The title Maximus is common to so many, that much confusion T y rius! - 
< has arisen from the numerous claimants to it ; but there is 
i reason to think that the author whose Dissertations have come 
; down to us is the same whose instructions are mentioned 
with respect in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. These nis work;! 
Dissertations are in number forty-one ; Heinsius thinks they 
\ should be divided into ten tetralogies and an introduction. Several 
i of them seem to have been composed in Greece ; in the 37th the 

1 tt An accurate examiner of old books, and a diligent collector of remarkable 
! words." 






412 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Maximus allusions are Greek, 1 and in most others Maximus Tyrius shows a 
Tyrius. more familiar acquaintance with Grecian than with Roman customs 
and history. The subjects are various, some turning on matters of 
practical philosophy, and some on those subtle questions whicli 
have at all times exercised the ingenuity, and baffled the inquiries, 
of thoughtful minds. The following are among the number : 

1. Tie pi tov tls 6 6ebs Kara liKarcova. 19 and 34. Ti to TeXos 
(pikoo-o<fila$ ; 25. Tov 6eov ra ayaOa noiovvros, nodev ra Ka<a ; 26 and 
27. Tt to daifxovlov "2a>KpaT0vs ; 38. Et Oeols dydXpara IhpVTEov; 
40. Tt ecttiv enio-Trjur) ; 
His style. The style of Maximus Tyrius is elegant and perspicuous, abound- 

ing with apt illustrations and metaphors. Casaubon calls him 
mellitissimus Platonicorum. Learned without prolixity, argumen- 
tative without intemperance, he wins assent rather than extorts it. a 
Plato and Homer seem to have been his favourite authors. It 
has been said that, in the 37th dissertation, he writes too arro- 
gantly of himself and his philosophy ; but the reward which he 
claims so strongly was the practical virtue of his hearers, not their 
applause. 
His opinions On the subject of prayer, we find in Maximus Tyrius those argu- 
on prayer, ments which might be expected from natural reason : they are 
expressed with elegance, and urged with ingenuity, not so much 
against a habit of prayer in general, as against its prospective 
efficacy, and particularly against making temporal advantages the 
object of it : his master, Plato, reasons in the same way in the 
Second Alcibiades. Socrates is there represented as meeting Alci- 
biades on his way to address the Gods for temporal blessings, and 
dissuades him from offering such petitions, by showing that he 
could not be certain whether the fulfilment of his wishes would be 
eventually advantageous or not. Maximus Tyrius argues thus 
against the use of prayers for external goods. These, he says, must 
come from necessity or chance, which are unassailable by prayer ; 
or from art, to which no man prays ; or from Providence. Now 
the latter will not derange its purposes on account of our suppli- 
cations ; to repent and vary is unsuitable to the character of even a 
good man, much more is it unsuitable to God. If we deserve the 
desired object, it will come unasked ; if not, no entreaty will obtain 
it. Maximus Tyrius acknowledges that the whole life of Socrates 
was full of prayer, pea-rov evxvs : but he did not, as other men do, 
vex the Gods with petitions for wealth or power ; his object was 
not so much to ask favours, as to hold communion with Heaven ; 
and he obtained with the assent of the Gods (ew€7nvev6vT<i>v endvctiv) 
intellectual excellence, a life of blameless tranquillity, and a death of 
cheerful hope. In the 26th dissertation, he dwells with much pious 

1 Davis, Prcefatio. 2 Paccius, Prcefatio. 



MAXIMUS TYEIUS. 413 

feeling on man's weakness, his need of divine help in danger and Maximus 
temptations, and he says, it was on these subjects that Socrates T y nus - 
consulted his Daemon. 

The first of two essays devoted to this inquiry, ri rb baifxoviov 
^(oparovs ; is thus introduced. Since no one denies or ridicules 
the idea of the Gods being present at the various Oracles, and com- 
municating future events by means of their priestesses, why might 
not Socrates have enjoyed the constant presence of a Deity ? Should 
one ask who this Deity was, I must inquire whether he believe in 
the existence of daemons ? Does not Homer introduce a daemon or 
genius, whom he calls Minerva, checking the rage of Achilles, 
prompting Telemachus, and encouraging Diomede ? "Unless you are 
willing to deny the existence of these beings, to contradict Homer, 
1 giving up all oracles and dreams, certainly Socrates deserved a par- 
ticular protector as much as any one. Surely some men have their 
protecting genii, who warn them by auguries, and assist them in 
the strife when virtue proves an unequal match for Fortune. These 
! beings are ministering angels, above mortals and below God : — 

Tpls yap fxvpioi eltrlv irrl x^ovl TroXvfiorelpr] 
'AOdvaroi Zr\vos, (pvAaices Bvqtoov avOpdnronv. l 

Of these, some cure diseases, or assist the labours of art ; others 
communicate information or suggest advice — attendants at home or 
abroad, by land or sea, varying in character with the dispositions of 
men : but the wicked have no protecting genius. 

In the second dissertation the nature of this familiar daemon is 
thus described. There is in nature a regular gradation, com- 
mencing with God, and terminating with plants ; daemons, men, 
| and brutes being the intermediate links: by the union of different 
'qualities in the same being, each rank in existence is connected 
with one above and one below it ; daemons, men or genii, being 
immortal, and yet passive, partake of the divine nature on the one 
hand, on the other of the human, and thus connect God with men. 
The soul preserves the body as long as it remains in it ; on escaping, 
it becomes a daemon, and lives in peace and pleasure : these beings 
compassionate their earthly friends, are permitted to assist them, 
protecting the good and punishing the wicked : each has its office, 
and is peculiarly conversant about such things as it loved on earth. 
jiEsculapius still promotes the healing art, and Achilles sports in 
larms ; the latter is still said to be seen with Thetis and Patroclus 
in an island in the Euxine sea : Hector still bounds over the plains 
of Troy : and endangered mariners often acknowledge the assistance 
of the Dioscuri. 

Traces of this fanciful and pleasing theory arc familiar to the 

1 " On earth there are three myriads of immortals, the guardians of mortal 
men." 



414 



LITERATURE OP THE AGE OF THE AXTOX1NI. 



Mfiximus 
Tyrius. 



Marcus 
Fabius 
Quinc- 
tilianus. 



mind of the scholar who is conversant with the writings of antiquity; 
and the Eosicrucians may have borrowed from these sources that 
beautiful machinery with which Pope has embellished the Rape of 
the Lock. The treatise of Maximus Tyrius is superior in style to 
that of Apuleius on the same subject. 

Marcus Fabius Quinctilianus died before the accession of 
the Antonini to the Imperial power, and therefore cannot in strict- 
ness be included in a sketch of the literature of their age ; never- 
theless, since there has not appeared any intermediate place after 
the reign of Augustus in which this distinguished writer could be 
noticed, we may be allowed, without any great breach of chronolo- 
gical order, to introduce him here. The days of Quinctilianus were 
passed in instructing his contemporaries in the principles of the 
art of rhetoric, and, latterly, in compiling for the benefit of posterity 
the result of his studies, his practice, and his observation. Such 
occupations offer little variety of incident, and we know few cir- 
cumstances of his life except those which are occasionally mentioned 
by himself in connection with his professional pursuits. Notices of 
this kind which occur in his works have been carefully examined by 
the learned Dodwell, and annexed under the title of Annales 
Quinctiliani to Burman's edition of the Be Institutione Oratorio,. 
Ausonius calls our author Hispanus and Calagurritanus ; but the 
silence of Martial on this point has given rise to an opinion that he 
was not a native of Spain ; at all events, he came early to Eome. 
According toDodwell's conjectures, Quinctilianus was born a. d. 42, 
and at the age of fifteen was placed under the instruction of Domi- 
tius Afer, of whose abilities the highest character is given by the 
pen of his grateful pupil. " Yidi ego longe omnium quos mihi 
cognoscere contigit summum oratorem Domitium Afrum," &c. l 
This orator, however, dying in a.d. 59, Quinctilianus was trans- 
ferred to the care of Servilius Nonianus. In a.d. 61, he probably 
went into Spain with Galba. His employment not being of a 
military nature, he might there have begun to teach oratory, and to 
lay the foundation of that rhetorical celebrity w r hich Galba after- 
wards rewarded by appointing him to the Professor's chair at Eome ; 
this, moreover, would account for the names by which Ausonius 
has mentioned him. However, in 68 he returned to Eome, and 
from this period we are to date the commencement of the twenty 
years which he speaks of having spent in tuition. 2 From this 
employment, and from professional practice as a speaker, he retired 
at the age of forty-six ; partly, perhaps, warned by the example of 
Domitius Afer, who continued to appear in public after the day of 
his reputation was passed, and partly because, under the reign of 
Domitianus, he might wish to escape those disquietudes and 



1 Inst. xii. 11, 



2 See Martial, ii. 90. 






■tit-. 



MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS. 415 

anxieties of an orator's life which are mentioned by Maternus in Quinc- 
the dialogue Be Oratoribus. l In a.d. 89, Quinctilianus wrote his tilianu s. 
treatise, Be Causis corruptee Moquentice ; and between the years corruptee 
92 and 96, he commenced, concluded, and published his celebrated Eioquenti 
work, Be Institutione oratorid. In the proem of the sixth book, ^ r ^ nstitu ' 
we find him lamenting in the language of sincere affection the death oratorid. 
of his wife, whom he married in a.d. 82, and of two sons, whose 
promising abilities and virtues are mentioned with parental fond- 
ness. In 94 he married the daughter of Eutilius, and by her he 
had a child, whose marriage portion was a present from Pliny 2 in 
a.d. 107. How long Quinctilianus survived after this is doubtful. 
, We know that he rose to distinction and wealth. Plavius Clemens 
j had married a sister of Domitianus, and Quinctilianus was appointed 
j to superintend the education of their children : he might owe to 
| this connection the consular ornaments which Ausonius calls, 
, " Honestamenta nominis potius quam insignia potestatis." 3 There 
I is a learned note in Bayle's Bictionary tending to prove that the 
, pupils of Quinctilianus were grandchildren of Domitianus. Dod- 
well conjectures that he might have assisted in the education of 
j Hadrianus, and have owed his promotion to that Emperor, who 
was desirous of patronising literature and the arts. Juvenal 
| describes it as the gift of fortune deserved by merit : — " Fortunate, 
handsome, keen ; fortunate and wise, noble and distinguished, he 
has planted his foot in the senatorial shoe" : — 

Unde igitur tot 
Quinctilianus habet saltus ? exempla novoruni 
Fatorum transi : felix, et pulchcr, et acer ; 
Felix, et sapiens, et nobilis et generosus, 
Apposi tarn nig raelunam subtexit alutse. — Sat. vii. 188. 

The private character of Quinctilianus seems to have commanded 
'; the respect and esteem of his contemporaries : 4 in his works he 
appears a severe judge of licentious writings, 5 and speaks of him- 
self with modesty ; yet his flattery of Domitianus is gross and inex- 
cusable, and in his lamentations over his domestic sorrows we see 
that resignation to the will of Providence was not one of the lessons 
he practised. 

As a writer, Quinctilianus has great merit in systematic method, His qualities. 
yet even here he falls short of Aristotle. Perhaps no scientific 
treatise offers so good a specimen of beautiful arrangement as Aris- 
totle's Rhetoric. The second book, moreover, displays an intimate 
knowledge of human nature, a masterly analysis of the passions, a 
development of their sources and their objects j to which there is 

i C 13. a Pliny, vi. 32. 



[" Titular honours rather than signs of power." — Editor.] 
Juv. vi. 75. Martial, ii. 90. 5 x. 1. 



416 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Quinc- nothing comparable in Quinctilianus, in respect of depth, and origi- 

tilianus. nality of thought. 

Comparison If we compare Quinctilianus with Cicero, we may observe that, 
with Cicero. as the object of the latter was to create among the Romans a literary 
taste, that of the former was to correct a taste which had taken a 
false direction. For this task he was well calculated : sound judg- 
ment was one of his chief qualifications. His admiration is never 
lavished on ordinary performances ; and though inferior writers 
generally come in for a share of approbation proportionate to their 
respective merits, yet the attention of the student is always directed 
to the contemplation of the best models, so that the first lines of 
thought may be correctly drawn. When he applies to Domitianus 
this line of Virgil ' — 

Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros, 

we must esteem this as the flattery of the courtier, not the judg- 
ment of the critic. Cicero's rhetorical works are deficient in 
arrangement and method, yet had he left us nothing but these, they 
would have stamped him as an eloquent writer. Quinctilianus, on 
the other hand, is more copious and more methodical ; he knew and 
felt what eloquence was ; he delivered rules which would assist the 
Roman student to attain it, and he rather teaches us to forge 
weapons than, like Cicero, to employ them. Quinctilianus has, 
indeed, some beautiful passages, and he writes pathetically respect- 
ing his domestic sorrows in the introduction to the sixth book; yet 
the details of the work are often minute even to prolixity. 
Ancient One who was unacquainted with the works of the ancient 

orators would learn from Quinctilianus how widely they differed 
from the moderns, not only in vehemence of thought and express- 
ion, but in the vehemence of action that attends it. 2 The aid of 
the comedian was called in to regulate, not only the modulation of 
the voice, but the gestures of the body. The position of the 
orator's person, and the adjustment of his dress, depended on rules 
which seem to have been carried to a degree of minuteness almost 
ludicrous. "Est et ille verecundse orationi aptissimus, quo 
quatuor primis leviter in summum coeuntibus digitis, non procul 
ab ore aut pectore fertur ad nos maims, ac deinde prona ac paulu- 
lum prolata laxatur. Hoc modo ccepisse Demosthenem credo in 
illo pro Ctesiphonte timido summissoque principio : sic formatam 
Ciceronis manum quum diceret : ' Si quid est in me ingenii, judices, 
quod sentio quam sit exiguum.' " 3 

1 JEn. x. 1. 

2 Burke once exhibited a dagger in the House of Commons ; but this 
rhetorical artifice was a failure. 

3 xi. 3. The position most suitable to a modest speech is that in which, the four 
fingers slightly touching at the ends, the hand is drawn towards the face or breast of 



Oratory. 



MARCUS FABITJS QUINCTILIANUS. 417 

We may observe, also, that trie ancient orators, in their attempts Marcus 
to excite compassion, used means which would now appear ridicu- q^_ 
lous ; employing, for instance, in a case of murder, a picture * tiiianus. 
representing the bloody deed, in order to move the judges by the 
display of so tragical a spectacle ; or collecting the relations of the 
dead, introducing them in squalid attire, and making them at a 
signal throw themselves at the feet of the judges to implore justice 
with tears and lamentations. 2 Quinctilianus, in connection with 
this subject, tells a jocose story of an advocate, who, on some such 
occasion having introduced into court a young witness, and pro- 
ceeding to ask why he wept, received for answer, " ex psedagogo se 
vellicari," that his pedagogue was pinching him. 

The whole work is valuable, as it tells us what were the elements 
and the plan of a liberal education at Koine. When religion had 
no literature, and philosophy little power apart from eloquence, it 
was to be expected that public speaking would enter too much 
into the established system of education, as in our times, perhaps, 
it enters too little : besides, when imperial power checked or 
prevented the free expression of thought, oratory was obliged to 
take refuge in the courts of law and the schools of rhetoricians : 
and a treatise professing to train for them would meet less of 
suspicion and discouragement than if its avowed design were wider. 
This may be an excuse for Quinctilianus where he attributes to 
I the orator many things which do not belong to him as stick. But 
where he lays it down as a maxim that none but a good man can 
be a good orator, neither the true theory of rhetoric nor the facts 
of history will bear out the argument : " potior mihi ratio vivendi 
honeste quam vel op time dicendi videretur, sed, mea quidem sen- 
tentia, juncta ista atque indiscreta sunt : neque enim esse oratorem 
nisi bonum virum posse judico, et, fieri etiam si possit, nolo." 3 
That a professor of great reputation should magnify his own 
office, and a practised writer be enamoured of his own sub- 
ject, is very natural ; but how could this opinion, expressed 
in the first and second chapters of his work, and defended at 
considerable length in the twelfth book, stand the test of his 
own historical knowledge ? It was Caius Julius Csesar of whom 
'Plutarch says, "undoubtedly he was the second orator in Rome, 
jand he might have been the first, had he not rather chosen the 
(preeminence in arms." The commendation of Quinctilianus 
extends almost as far : " if Caius Csesar had had leisure for the 

the speaker, then descends a little in advance, and is expanded. Thus I suppose 
Demosthenes began his timid and modest exordium on behalf of Ctesiphon — 
thus the hand of Cicero was managed when he said : " If there be any ability in 
me, O judges — and how small it is I feel." 

1 Quinct. vi. 1. 2 See Hume, Essay 13 : Of Eloquence. 3 i. 2. 

[r. l.] e e 



418 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 



Marcus 
Fabius 
Quinc- 
tilianus. 



forum, no other would have been named as a match for Cicero : 
such was his vigour, such his keenness and energy, that he seems 
to have spoken with the same spirit with which he fought." ■ 
So great an orator was the man in whom, when he was yet 
a boy, the prophetic eye of Sylla saw a host of latent Marii : 
such was the suspected and denounced partner in the con- 
spiracy of Catiline, and the political abettor of Clodius. (Plutarch 
in vit. C. Csesaris.) The example of Mirabeau in modern times 
bears on the present subject : he united splendid eloquence to 
great depravity : as soon as he obtained a seat in the National 
Assembly, he won the leadership of his party by his talents, and 
kept it by his power of public speaking : in his character he was 
somewhat like Caesar, not only in the influence which his eloquence 
obtained, but in the personal audacity and reckless ambition with 
which he made war on the existing constitution. Caesar established 
an imperial despotism on the ruins of an out-worn republic : 
Mirabeau helped to plant a tyrannical blood-thirsty republic on the 
ruins of a vicious, proud, and pampered monarchy. If a political 
agitator succeeds in crowning his head with a diadem, his enter- 
prise is called a revolution ; if the same enterprise crowns the city 
walls with his head, the attempt is rebellion, and he is a traitor. 
Not, however, that even Pagan morality in sober earnest would 
acknowledge this distinction : and we think the career of Caesar 
and Mirabeau, and the example of some public men of the present 
century, have set widely asunder what Quinctilianus thought insepa- 
rable : " juncta ista atque indiscreta sunt; ratio honeste vivendi et 
op time dicendi." 

Our author was too wise and too well-informed to advocate 
professional education in any narrow sense of that expression : he 
would not train a future lawyer in nursery litigation, feed the mind 
of the future sailor only on nautical books, and urge the young 
aspirant after military honours to turn his garden into a fortifica- 
tion. His work, operating on fit materials, would form a good 
citizen of large and liberal knowledge, having his reasoning powers 
disciplined by the mathematics, his imagination cultivated by 
poetry, his memory stored with historical information, and his 
taste exercised by philological and critical questions. It would be 
the pupil's fault or misfortune if he had not much of that accuracy, 
fullness, and readiness, which Lord Bacon expected from habits of 
composition, study, and speaking. Those who write receipts are 
privileged to take their materials for granted : accordingly Quinc- 
tilianus provides the future orator with parents having a considerable 
share of learning, a good voice and lungs, sound constitution, 
some personal advantages, and a nurse whose dialect is unexception- 



Quinct. x. 1. 



MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS. 419 

able. Next in order, as the instrument of education, is the pseda- Marcus 

i. a i. • i. • ± Fabius 

gogus — a sort of nursery-governor who is to communicate some Q U i nc - 
elementary knowledge, as well as to guard the moral character : tiUanus. 
specially he is to correct any inaccurate or vulgar expressions, and 
thus plant and preserve the future orator's purity of language. Greek 
is among the earliest pursuits, and Latin, as a systematic study, 
not only a conversational habit, is to follow speedily : much stress 
is laid on acquiring early the art of writing rapidly and clearly. 
Quinctilianus seems to look coldly on those who would mercifully 
spare children much discipline till they were seven. Apparently he 
would impress on parental minds the ancient proverb : — " Bis dat 
qui cito dat " — : ' a gift is of double value if it is made soon." He 
estimates highly the average of youthful ability, considering quick- 
ness of thought and aptitude for learning the rule rather than the 
exception. The experience which leads to this judgment is probably 
rare as well as enviable. 

When the Paedagogus had performed his part, the pupil was 
transferred to the Grammaticus, and afterwards to the Ehetor : the 
limits of these departments of education were not very accurately 
defined ; but we may understand the Grammaticus to be a classical 
tutor occupying in his own right a larger space in the cycle of 
literature than his name would imply, and often anxious to increase 
his range of usefulness by incursions into the territory of his 
superiors. 1 He carried forward the previous lessons of taste and 
criticism; he taught music, and the rhythm of harmonious elo- 
quence, a habit of correct reading, and of repeating and explaining 
fictitious tales and parts of history. With the Grammaticus were 
read iEsop's Fables, Homer and "Virgil, Tragic and Lyric poets, and 
Menander. 

The comparative advantages of public and private education 
duinctilianus decides in favour of the former ; 2 the most successful 
statesmen and the most eminent authors being, he says, on his 
side : the moral difficulty he meets by pointing out a very obvious 
but frequently forgotten truth, that the case must be a choice of 
evils, and that a great part of those which are attributed to a 
public school education (frequentise scholarum) are the effects of 
the careless or corrupt system which preceded it at home. The 
picture he draws of the social habits of the Eomans of his time is 
dark and discouraging. As to the discipline of mind and character 
he observes, that one " who is to live in the full light of the state 
must be accustomed early not to fear publicity, or shrink from 
exertion in the shade of retirement : the collision of different 
habits, dispositions, and talents is useful; so is that emulation 
which can win honour without nourishing pride, and bear failure 

1 ii. 1. - ii. 2. 

E E 2 



420 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 

Marcus without indulging either permanent discouragement or personal 

Km:! animosity towards a successful rival." 

tiiianus. We have thus gathered from the first book of Quinctilianus some 

of the principles and some of the instruments which he recommended 
for the discipline of the youthful Koman from the nursery to the 
school of the professor of rhetoric. They have proved their 
vitality and power — we might add their value too — by the hold 
which they still have on the English mind and character of the 
nineteenth century. An analysis of the whole work would exceed 
our reasonable limits : it has been said in our article on Ehetoric 
that the finding of suitable arguments to prove a given point, and 
the skilful arrangement of these, may be considered as the imme- 
diate and proper province of Ehetoric, and of that alone. Quinc- 
tilianus took a wider view, if not correctly, yet fortunately for us : 
otherwise we should have lost the short critical sketch of Greek and 
Latin authors which is found in the tenth book. 

It is not easy to imagine a richer or more tempting subject to 
one like Quinctilianus, whose early life had been passed in exten- 
sive and various studies, and who found leisure in his later days to 
examine, correct, and record his opinions, than a comparison of 
Greek and Eoman literature. In this discussion, as in the rest of 
his work, he shows more of good taste than comprehensive or 
commanding intellect. There is nothing like a full statement of 
the characteristic differences of the Greek and Eoman writers, or a 
philosophical inquiry into the causes of this diversity : the praise 
awarded might have been more discriminating, and the subject 
treated at far greater length : some of the opinions expressed are 
undoubtedly liable to objection ; J the commendation, for instance, 
bestowed on Apollonius, " sequalis qusedam mediocritas," 2 is so 
faint as to amount almost to a sentence of unmerited condemna- 
tion : — the partial feelings of a Eoman only would place Sallust 
and Livy on the same level as historians with Thucydides and 
Herodotus. — Terence and Plautus 3 are too hastily dismissed with- 
out any remarks on their peculiar merits, the true delineation of 
nature observable in the former, to which the latter added a richer 
vein of invention, and greater variety of character. But while we 
regret that this part of the Be Institutione Oratorio, was not 
expanded ; while we confess that to have seen this ample subject 
more largely and more critically discussed would have compensated 
for the omission of many of the rules and technicalities of the 
schools of the rhetoricians ; while we may differ from Quinctilianus 
in some of his opinions, we must remember that his judgment in 
general has been ratified by posterity. 

1 See Copleston's Praelectiones Academicae, Prsel. 10. 

2 " Equable mediocrity." 3 x. i. 



421 



EDITIONS, &c., OF THE WOEKS OF AUTHOES OE THE 
AGE OF THE ANTONINI. 



MARCUS AURELIUS. 

Editio Princeps. Xylander. (Gr. et Lat.) Tigur. 1558. 

Casaubon. Lond. 1643. 

Gataker. (G-r. et Lat.) Camb. 1652. This is an excellent edition of 

the original, with ample notes and commentary, parallel passages, and 

prolegomena. It was printed at London in 1643. 
Stanhope. (Gr. et Lat.) Lond. 1707. 
Wolf. (Gr. et Lat.) Lips. 1729. 
Schulz. (Gr. et Lat.) Schlesw. 1802. This recension is imperfect, one 

volume only having been published. 
Translations : — English : Casaubon. Lond. 1634. — Graves. Bath, 1792 ; 

and Lond. 1811. — Collier. Lond. 1702. — An English translation 

published at Glasgow in 1749 is respectable. French : Dacier. Par. 

1691.— Joly. Par. 1803. German: Schulz. Schlesw. 1799. 

Italian : Anon. 1675. 



LUCIANUS. 

In Scholl, iv. 248, there is a brief analysis of his several pieces, which is 
given in Anthon's Lempriere. See also Wetzlare, De iEtate, Vit&, 
Scriptisque Luciani. Macb. 1832. Gessner, De iEtat. de Auctore 
Dialogi, qui Philopatris inscribitur. Lips. 1730. 

Editio Princeps. Folio. Flor. 1496. 

Aldus. Folio. Ven. 1503, 1522. 

Bourdelot. (Gr. et Lat.) Folio. Par. 1615. 

Hemsterhuis. (Gr. et Lat.) 3 vols. 4to. Amst. 1743. To this excellent 
edition of the original a fourth volume is added — viz., The Lexicon 
Lucianeum, of C. R. Reitz. Ultraj. 1746. Not perfect. 

Schmid, 8 vols. Mitau. 1776 — 1780. This is merely a reprint of the 
former with the addition of notes. Another reprint (the Bipont ed.) 
is in ten volumes, without the Lexicon. 

Schmieder. 2 vols. Halle. 1810. 

Lehmann. (Gr. etLat.) 9 vols. Lpz. 1822— 1831. 

Fritzsche. Lpz. 1826. 

Dindorf. Par. 1840. 

Edit. Selec. Seybold. Gotha. 1785.— Wolf. Halle. 1791. — Gehich. 
Gotting. 1797. 

Gail. Par. 1806. (Dialogues of the Dead.) 

Lehmann. Lpz. 1813,1826. (Dialogues of the Dead.) 

Lehmann. Lpz. 1815. (Dialogues of the Gods.) 

Poppo. Lpz. 1817. (Dialogues of the Dead.) 



422 EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTONINIAN 110MAN AUTHORS. 

Courier. Par. 1818. (Lucius, or the Ass.) 

Grauff. Berne. 1836. (The Dream, or the Cock.) 

Jacob. Halle. 1825. (Friendship.) 

Jacob. Cologn. 1828. (Alexander, or the False Prophet.) 

Translations: — English : Blount, Shere, Moyle, and others. Lond. 1711. 
— Franklin, Dr., 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1780. — Carr. 5 vols. 8vo. Lond. 
1773— 1798.— Tooke. 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1820. Containing the 
Commentaries of Wieland and others. Besides these there are trans- 
lations by F. Hickes, about 1654 ; by Dr. Mayne, in 1664 ; and by 

Spence, in 1684. French : D'Ablancourt. 2 vols. 4to. Par. 1654. 

— Belin de Ballu. 6 vols. Par. 1788. The latter is the better 

translation of the two versions named. German : Wieland. 6 vols. 

Lpz. 1788. 

Works illustrative of Lucian's writings include : — Jortin's Remarks. Tract*. 
1790. — Porson. Tracts by Kidd. Lond. 1815. — Tiemann. Versuch 
iiber Lucians, &c. Zerbst. 1804. — Krebsius. Vide Opuscula Aca- 
demica. Lips. 1778. 



PAUSANIAS. 

Editio Princeps. Aldus. (Itinerary. Ed. M. Musurus.) Fol. Ven. 1516. 
Xylander et Sylburgius (with Notes). Fol. Frankf. 1583. This edition 

contains a Latin Version by Romolo Amaseo. 
Kiihnius. (Gr. et Lat.) Fol. Lpz. 1696. An excellent edition. 
Facius. (Gr. et Lat.) 4 vols. Lpz. 1794—1797. 
Bekker. 2 vols. Berl. 1826. 

Siebelis. (Gr. et. Lat.) 5 vols. Lpz. 1822-1828. 
Schubert et Walz. (Gr. et Lat. Text, critical.) 3 vols. Lips. 1839. 
Translations : — English : Taylor. 3 vols, (with maps and views). Lond. 

1793. French: Clavier (and others). 6 vols. Par. 1814—1820. 

German: Goldhagen. 5 vols. Berl. 1798. — Wiedasch. 4 vols. 

Mun. 1826—1829. 



JULIUS POLLUX. 

Editio Princeps. Aldus. Fol. Ven. 1502. 

Junta. Fol. Flor. 1520. 

Seber. Francf. 1608. This edition contains the Latin version of Walther. 

Lederlin et Hemsterhuis. 2 vols, folio. Amst. 1706. This is a fine 

edition, cum notis variorum. See Fabricius's Bibl. Grcec. 
Translation : — Latin. Walther. Bas. 1541. 



AULUS GELLIUS. 

Editio Princeps. Sweynheym et Pannartz (printers). Ed. J. Andreas, 

Aleriensis. Fol. Rom. 1469. Reprinted in 1472, at same place. 
Jenson. Fol. Ven. 1472. 

Stephens. With notes, emendations, and two dissertations. Par. 1585. 
Elzevir, L. Amst. 1651. 
Elzevir, D. Amst. 1665. 
Gronovius. Lugd. Bat. 1666, 1687, et 1706. 



EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTON1NIAN ROMAN AUTHORS. 423 

Conradi. 2 vols. Lpz. 1762. This edition, the Biponfc, and that of 

Longolius, are reprints of Gronovius's. 
Lion. 2 vols. Gott. 1824. Esteemed the best. 
Translations : — English : Beloe. Illustrated with notes. 3 vols. Lond. 

Oct. 1795. French: Verteuil. 3 vols. Par. 1789. German: 

Wallenstern. Lemgo. 1785. 



CLAUDIUS GALENUS. 

Editt. Prince. Aldus. (Ed. Andre d'Asola.) 5 vols. fol. 1525. — Cratander, 
Printer. (Ed. Gemusaeus.) 5 vols. fol. Bas. 1538. These two 
editions contain the Greek text alone. The latter edition is more 
correct than the former one. 

Chartier. (Gr. et Lat.) 13 vols. fol. Par. 1679. The first volume of 
Chartier's edition appeared in 1639. He died in 1654, when only nine 
volumes had appeared. His son-in-law published the remaining four, 
the last of which bears date 1679. This edition comprehends Hippo- 

Kiihn. (Gr. et.Lat.) 20 vols. Par. 1816. 

Translations : — German : JSTb'ldecke. Oldb. 1805. The first volume has 

only been published. Latin : Frobenius. Bas. 1541 et 1562. The 

latter edition contains a Preface well written by Conradus Gesnerus. 



LUCIUS APULEIUS. 

There is a Delphin edition of Apuleius ; one on a smaller scale, with notes 
on the Metamorphoseon by Beroaldus; and one without notes, but 
containing a prefatory dissertation and emendations of the text by 
Wower. Casaubon has published notes on the Apologia, and Josias 
Mercer on the Treatise De Deo Socratis. 

Editio Princeps. Sweynkeym et Pannartz. (Ed J. Andrea.) Rom. 1469. 

Floridus. (Fleury.) 2 vols. Par. 1688. 

Oudendorp et Boseha. 3 vols. Leyd. 1786—1823. 

The Bipont edition in 2 vols. 1788. 

Hildebrand. Lips. 1842. Hildebrand commenced this edition, and 
completed the first volume. 

Translations: — English : Monde. Lond. 1724. — Taylor. Lond. 1795. — 
Anonymous. (Cupid and Psyche, in verse.) Lond. 1799. — Taylor. 

(The Golden Ass.) Lond. 1822. French : Abbe' Compain de St 

Martin (retouche'e par Bastien). Par. 1787. — Blanvillain. (Psyche.) 

Par. 1796. German: Rode. (Ass.) 2 vols. Berl. 1690.— 

Linker. (Psyche, in verse.) Jen. 1805. 



ATHEN.EUS. 

Editio Princeps. Aldus. (Musurus, assistant ed.) Fol. Ven. 1514. 

Bedrotus et Herlinus. Fol. Bas. 1535. 

Delacampius. (Lat. 1st vol.) Lug. 1583. The second volume was not 

printed till 1600, to which Casaubon's commentary was added. 
Casaubon. (Gr. et Lat., with a commentary.) 2 vols. fol. Gen. 1597 — 

1600. 



424 EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTONINIAN ROMAN AUTHORS. 

Schweighauser. (Gr. et Lat.) 14 vols. Argent. 1801—1807. Tin 
commentary to this edition is exceedingly valuable. 

Dindorf. 3 vols. Lips. 1827. 

Translations: — French: Marolles. Par. 1680. — Villebrune. 5 vols. 
Par. 1789. 



MAXIMUS TYRIUS. 

Edd. Prince. Paccius, Petrus. (Lat. ed. Cosmus Paccius.) Fol. Rom. 

1517, et Basil. 1519. 
Stephanus. (Gr. et Lat.) 2 vols. Par. 1557. 
Heinsius. (Gr. et Lat.) Leyd. 1607 et 1614. 
Davis. Camb. 1703. This edition, revised by Dr. "Ward, and illustrated 

with notes by Markland, was reprinted in 4to, in London, 1740. 



MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS. 

The manuscript of Quinctilianus was found in the bottom of a tower of 
the monastery of St. Gal, by Poggius, as appears by one of his letters 
dated 1417, written from Constance. 

Edd. Prince. Burmann. (De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Lugd. Bat. 1720. 
The same author has also edited the Declamationes Quinctiliani ; but 
since the critics have decided that neither these nor the treatise called 
Dialogus de Oratoribus are the work of Quinctilianus, it is needless to 
make particular mention of them here. — Capperomus. (De Inst. 
Or.) Fol. Par. 1725.— Rollin. (De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Par. 1734. 
— Gessner. Gott. 1738. 

Schulze. (De Causis corr. Eloq.) Lpz. 1788. Other editions have also 
appeared. 

Spalding. (De Inst. Orat.) 4 vols. Lpz. 1798 — 1816. Zumpt has pub- 
lished an additional volume, viz. — V., Notes and Index ; and Bonnelli 
has added a sixth — VI., Lexicon QuinctiHanium. 

Lilnemann. 2 vols. Han. 1826. 

Translations : — English : Warr. (Declamations.) Lond. 16S6. — Guthrie. 
(De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Lond. 1756.— Patsall. (Ditto.) Lond. 1774. 
— Melmoth. (On Eloquence.) Lond. 1754. — Murphy. (Ditto.) 

In his translation of Tacitus. 4 vols. Lond. 1793. French: 

Abbe Gedoyn. (De Inst. Orat.) Par. 1718. Also in 4 vols. 12mo, 

in 1803. German : Hencke. (De Inst. Orat.) 3 vols. Helmst. 

1775.— Nast. (De Causis, &c.) Halle. 1787. 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



KEV. HENKY THOMPSON", M.A. 

LATE SCHOLAR OF SI. JOES's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; CUBATE OF WEINGTON, SOMERSET. 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



SPARTIANUS . ^ -n 

VDLCATIUS 

TREBELLIUS POLLIO , _. , . _ . ! 

r Historic Augustse Scnptores.'' 
vopiscus . ° * 

LAMPRIDIUS . y FLOURISHED 

JULIUS CAPITOLINUS J ABOUT 

MAMERTINUS MAJOR -n a d> 3Q(). 

EUMENIUS 

nazarius . " Panegyrici Veteres. J 

MAMERTINUS MINOR A.D. 360. 

DREPANIUS . . A.D. 390. 

AURELIUS VICTOR A.D. 370. 

EUTROPIUS DIED ABOUT A.D. 370. 

SYMMACHUS FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 390. 

AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS A.D. 400. 

OROSIUS DIED A D. 417. 

CASSIODORUS .... LIVED FROM A.D. 463 TO ABOUT 563. 

BOETHIUS FLOURISHED ABOUT A D. 510. 




Ruins cf Horns. 



POST-ANTOXINIAX PROSE WRITERS. 



In our last chapter on Latin Poetry we have adverted to the Fail of Latin 
causes which accelerated the fall of the entire literature after its Prose ' 
culmination in the reign of Augustus. These causes must have 
left enduring results, even had they ceased to operate ; but not 
only did they continue active, — they increased in intensity. 
Christianity, indeed, in some degree checked their operation ; but 
its effects were, as might be expected, less considerable on prose 
than on poetry. The language had become essentially corrupt, and 
the invasions of barbarians destroyed at once the means and oppor- 
tunities of literary culture. Under these circumstances, it is only 
wonderful that there should be so many names of literary note to 

> be recorded under the Lower Empire. But, though authors were 

: numerous, style and matter had materially deteriorated. 

The most extensive field of post-Antoninian literature, especially History, 
if we include lost writers as well as extant, is History. But the 
circumstances of the times, whether we regard language, fidelity, or 



428 



POST-ANTOXINIAX PROSE WRITERS. 



History. 



Lost 
Biographies. 



Historia 
Augusta. 



interest, were singularly unfavourable to this province of literature. 
Fear, hypocrisy, disregard of truth, were the natural characteristics 
of the historian ; the rather, because he generally chose his subject 
from his own times, or nearly so, and wrote what was actually 
or virtually biographical. Investigation was too dangerous to be 
attempted. 

The most celebrated work of this kind and time is the collec- 
tion now extant, under the title Histories Augusta Scriptores. 
But before these biographers flourished, a cloud of writers, of whom 
we know little more than the names, are recorded ; some of whom 
were the sources drawn on by the Augustan biographers. The 
Emperor Severus wrote the history of his own time, and under him 
lived the historian iElius Maurus ; Lollius Urbicus flourished under 
Macrinus and Heliogabalus ; Aurelius Philippus was preceptor and 
biographer of Alexander Severus ; the latter office was also that of 
Encolpius ; these were succeeded by Gargilius Martialis and 
Marius Maximus; the latter wrote the life of Trajan and his 
successors, as far as Heliogabalus ; Junius (or iElius) Cordus wrote 
lives of some of the Caesars; Fabius Marcellinus composed a 
biography of Trajan and others ; iElius Sabinus flourished under 
Maximian ; Vulcatius Terentius wrote a biography of the Emperor 
Gordian ; and Curius Eortunatianus, one of Maximus ; Moeonius 
Astyanax, Palfurnius Sura, Ccelestinus, and Acholius wrote under 
Gallienus and his successors ; Julius Aterianus, and Gallus Anti- 
pater, under the Thirty Tyrants; Aurelius Eestivus under Aurelian; 
Suetonius Optatianus, and Gellius Euscus, under Tacitus ; One- 
simus under Probus ; Fabius Cerilianus, Aurelius Apollinaris, and 
Fulvius Asprianus, under Carus and his sons ; Asclepiodotus, and 
Claudius Eusthenius, under Diocletian. The latter of these two wrote 
the lives of several emperors ; the former, that of Diocletian only. 

From some of these authors, whose names the method of our work, 
rather than any substantive advantage to be derived from recording 
them, induces us to set down, was, in great measure, produced the 
collection to which we have before adverted. It consists of a 
series of imperial biographies, by six several writers, ranging from 
Hadrian to Carus and his sons, both ways inclusive, and comprising 
a period exceeding 160 years. The absence of Nerva and Trajan 
from this collection is attributed to the imperfection of MSS., to 
which cause, also, may be referred the want of the Philips, the 
Decii, and a part of Valerian. The Historia Augusta Scriptorea 
were collected in their present form and order very early ; and, 
probably, at Constantinople. The book is, apparently, a selection 
from a great mass of similar materials ; and, therefore, bids fair to 
be a good specimen of its class. At the same time, as we neither 
know the editor, nor his principle of selection, we cannot be sure 
that he has preserved the most authentic materials to his hand ; 



POST-ANTONINIAN PEOSE WEITEES. 429 

while, if such be really the case, no better evidence could be needed ffistoria 
of the degradation of historical composition under the Lower Au ^ usta - 
Empire, whether we regard the Latinity, or the authorities with 
which these writers were avowedly contented. With all their 
faults, however, they are of great absolute value, affording informa- 
tion which we can obtain from no other sources. 

JEliits Spartianus, the first of these writers, flourished under ^ liu s 
Diocletian. He designed to write the lives of all the Caesars and par 
their families, from Julius downwards; 1 those, however, attributed 
to his pen are Hadrian, iElius Yerus, Didius Julianus, Septimius 
Severus, Pescennius Niger, Caracalla, and Geta. The two first of 
these are of undisputed genuineness, and their authority is regarded 
as superior to that of the rest. The lives of Didius Julianus and 
Septimus Severus are attributed by Dodwell to Lampridius ; and 
the rest to Julius Capitolinus ; to whom Musgrave also attributes 
the life of Geta — a composition which Casaubon and Heyne had 
already inferred, from dissimilarity of style, to be spurious. 
Some MSS,, however, attribute to this author the lives ascribed to 
Lampridius ; 2 and, further, those of the Antonines, Yerus, Macrinus, 
Pertinax, and Albinus, commonly attributed to Capitolinus ; and 
the life of Avidius Cassius, generally regarded as the work of the 
j second writer of the Augustan history, Yulcatius Gallic anus, vuieatius 
contemporary of Spartianus, and who was no less ambitious in his a canus - 
historical plans ; but who, if this piece be not his, has left us nothing. 

The third of the Augustan historians, Tkebellius Pollio, Trebeffius 
flourished under Diocletian and Constantine the Great, or his father, ° 10, 
Constantius, only. He wrote the lives of the emperors from Philip 
to Divus Claudius, and his son, dumctillus ; but we possess those 
only of the Valerians, the Gallieni, the Thirty Tyrants, and Divus 
Claudius. The last two were revised on account of the accusations 
which were made against him by his contemporaries. 

Plavius Vopiscus, fourth of the Augustan historians, flourished Fiavius 
under Constantine the Great. He was a Syracusan, and his family v °p iscus - 
had been on terms of intimacy with Diocletian. His life of Aurelian 
was written at the desire of Junius Tiberianus, prsefect of Home, 
who assisted him with official materials. Afterwards he wrote the 
lives of Tacitus, Plorian, Probus, Pirmus, Saturninus, Proculus, 
Bonosus, Carus, Numerian, Carinus. He contemplated a life of 
Apollonius of Tyana, 3 which, however, he does not appear to have 
executed. His work, in method, arrangement, and historical aim, 
is superior to those of his fellow biographers. 

iEuius Lampridius, though placed after Vopiscus in the collec- Lampridius. 
tion, wrote before him, and was one of those writers whom he 

1 Ml. Verus, 1 . 
2 Hence, by Salmasius and others, these authors are identified under the name 
of iElius Lampridius Spartianus. 3 Aurelian, 24. 



430 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



Lampridius. 



Capitolinus. 



Septiinius. 



Dares. 



Aurclius 
Victor. 



Eutropius. 



assumed as a model. By some, as we have seen, he is identified 
with Spartianus. His works are the lives of Commodus, Diadu- 
menus, Heliogabalus, and Alexander Severus. 

Julius Capitolinus flourished under Diocletian and Constantine 
the Great. He wrote the lives of the Antonines, Verus, Pertinax, 
Albinus, Macrinus, two Maximins, three Gordians, Maxim us, and 
Balbinus. Some of these, as we have seen, have been attributed to 
Spartianus. His other works are lost. 

Contemporary with these writers, if his dedication be genuine, 
which is doubtful, was CI. Septimius, whom we mention among 
the historians for convenience only. His theme is the Trojan war ; 
and his work professes to be a translation from a MS. found in the 
sepulchre of Dictys, the companion of Idomeneus. The title is Be 
Bello Trojano, or Ephemeris Belli Trojani. The work is in six 
books. This history, together with another of uncertain date, 
probably much later, the Historia Excidii Trojce, professedly trans- 
lated from the Greek of Dares, the Phrygian, was, like the so- 
called Pindarus Thebanus, 1 one of the sources whence the writers of 
the middle ages drew materials for their favourite subject, the wars 
of Troy. 

Sextus Aurelius Victor, an African of humble parentage, 
who was raised by the Emperor Julian to the dignity of Governor 
of Pannonia Secunda, and by Theodosius the Great afterwards 
elevated to that of Prefect of Eome, is the reputed author of the 
following works : — 1. Origo Gentis Romance, of which we possess 
a small portion only, containing an account of the foundation of 
the city. This work has been also attributed to Asconius 
Pedianus, and by some regarded as a production of the 5th or 
6th, and even as a forgery of the 15th century. II. Be Viris 
Illustribas Roma. A biographical series, from the time of the 
Kings, attributed sometimes to Cornelius Nepos, to Suetonius, and 
to the younger Pliny. III. Be Coesaribus Histories abbreviate Pars 
altera. A compendious history extending from the conclusion of 
Livy's work to the 10th consulship of Constantius and Julian. 
IV. Be Vita et Moribus Imperatorum Roman orum. This work 
embraces the biography of the emperors from Augustus to Theo- 
dosius. It is not properly the production of Victor, though 
modelled on a work of his by a writer of the 5th century, named 
Victor Junior or Victorinus. 

Plavius Eutropius wrote a history intituled Eremarium 
Histories Romance, in ten books, from the building of Kome to the 
reign of Valens. Little is known of his life, and even his prsenomen 
is not certain. He was, however, private secretary to Constantine 
the Great ; he accompanied Julian into Persia, and was living in 
the reign of Valens. He died, probably, about the year 370. 



See p. 197. 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 431 

His work was composed at the instance of the last emperor. It Eutropius. 
is derived from authoritative sources, or from materials to which 
we have no other access. His free, calm, and moderate estimate 
of contemporary men and events, especially in such a period, 
speaks well for his credibility ; and his style, though not unblemished 
by the faults of his time, is free from affected embellishments, and 
flows clear and simple ; so that even to the present day his work 
has always been in great request, as a text-book for schools ; a 
circumstance which, at an early period, produced two Greek trans- 
lations of it, by Capito Lycius and Pseanius respectively. 

Contemporary with Eutropius was Sextus Bufus, or Festus Rufus. 
Bufus, or Sextus Bufus Festus. Of him we only know that he 
wrote, at the instance of Valens, a Breviarium Rerum gestarum 
Populi Romani ; a title which, however, is varied in some MSS. : 
and also a topographical sketch of the principal buildings and 
monuments of Borne, intituled Be Regionibus Urbis Roma. The 
latter is commonly found in company with a work of like subject 
and title by Publius Victor, and . an anonymous Libellus Provinc- 
iarum Romanorum of the age of Theodosius. The genuineness of 
the writings attributed to Bufus and Victor is, however, disputed. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Greek by extraction, and a native, Ammiauus 
apparently, of the Eastern empire, wrote in the reigns of Valens, Marcellinus. 
Valentinian, and Theodosius. In his youth he had devoted himself 
to scientific studies ; afterwards he entered the army under Con- 
stantius, accompanied Julian on his Persian expedition, and took 
an active part in the wars which the subsequent emperors waged in 
Germany, Gaul, and the East. In later life he retired to Borne to 
devote himself to the study and composition of history. His 
work was intituled Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI. ; and comprised the 
history of the empire from Nerva to Valens, both inclusive. The 
first thirteen books, which brought events down to the year 352, 
are lost; but the more important portion, because that which 
contains the facts of which he was himself a witness, have been 
fortunately preserved. Still the loss of his early history is much 
to be regretted, as we have every reason to believe it would have 
been a far better continuation of Tacitus than that which is supplied 
by all the intermediate historians. The language of this writer is 
not only marked by the impurities of his time; it is manifestly 
foreign, and rendered less intelligible by rhetorical artifice, and 
affectation of the style of Tacitus : but the matter is singularly 
valuable ; the historian is evidently a man of integrity, impartiality, 
intelligence, observation, and reflection : and, had he lived in a 
happier literary period, would have enjoyed the reputation to 
which his diligence and perspicacity entitle him. To many editions 
of this writer are appended Uxcerpta vetera de Constantino Chloro, 
Constantino magno, et aliis Imperatoribus : also, Excerpta ex Libris 



432 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



Orosius. 



Sulpicius 
Severus. 



Oratory. 



Claudius 

Mamertinus 

Major. 



Eumenius. 



Clironicorum de Odoacre et Theodorico, Regibus Italia. The author- 
ship of these pieces is uncertain. 

Paulus Orosius, of Tarragona, was a Christian priest, and 
took active part in the polemics of his day. In the year 41 3 he 
visited S. Augustin, in Africa, and was by him sent forward to 
S. Jerom, in Palestine, but afterwards returned to Africa, and was 
eventually buried at Eome. By the advice of S. Augustin, who 
was anxious to confute the heathen objection that the calamities of 
the empire were owing to the prevalence of Christianity, and to the 
consequent displeasure of the neglected and dishonoured gods, he 
wrote his Historiarmn IAbri VII. adversus Paganos. 1 This work, 
which records the history of the world from the creation to 
a.d. 417, is supplied from all sources which came to the author's 
hand, especially from Holy Scripture, and Justin's abbreviation, 
and digested according to the chronology of Eusebius. The object 
is steadily kept in view ; and this, together with the fidelity of the 
history, and the clearness, considering the period, of the style, 
obtained for Orosius great popularity and extension during the 
middle ages : our own great Alfred not having disdained to translate 
this author into Anglo-Saxon. About the same period Sulpicius 
Severus, a priest and recluse of Aquitain, wrote his Sacred History, 
or Narrative of Jewish and Christian Events, his Life of S. Martin, 
his Dialogues, and some Letters. 

While history was degenerating virtually and essentially into 
panegyric, oratory was becoming such literally and formally. We 
possess a collection of twelve of these panegyrics, dating about 
200 years later than that of Pliny, commonly known by the general 
title of Panegyrici Veteres. The first two of these are by 
Claudius Mamertinus, a Gallic orator. Of these two the first 
was pronounced at Treves on the 21st April, a.d. 298, and is 
occupied with the praises of Maximian and his colleague Diocle- 
tian; the second was pronounced in the year 291 or 292 on the 
birthday of the same emperor. The four next orations are the 
work of Eumenius, of Autun, a rhetorician of Greek descent. Of 
these the first is intituled Pro instaurendis Scholis Avgustodunensibus, 
pronounced in the year 296, a sort of inaugural lecture on his 
assumption of his function of teacher at Autun, and the subject of 
education. The title of the second is Panegyricus Constantino 
Ccesari receptd Britannia dictus, dating about 297 ; a congratulatory 
address on the part of the city to the emperor on his conquests in 
Britain. The third is a birthday congratulation to Constantine, 



1 In some MSS. an extraordinary title of this work occurs : — De Orchestra 
Mundi, or Ormestd, or Hormestd. All kinds of corrections have heen suggested. 
The first of these readings is most prohably the true. The history represents the 
world as the theatre on which man's vice and folly, and the sole remedial power of 
Christianity, are exhibited. 



POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 433 

spoken at Treves about a.d. 310. The last, which dates a.d. 311, Eumenius. 
is designated Gratiarum Actio Constantino Augusto Maviensium 
nomine. It expresses the gratitude of the people of Autun for 
various favours received from Constantine, and was pronounced at 
Treves, whither Eumenius was especially delegated for the purpose. 
Eumenius is the least laudatory of these writers, and his speeches, 
though no models of eloquence, are not destitute of historical 
value. Two of the orations in this collection are of uncertain 
authorship : the Panegyricus Maximiano et Constantino dictus, 
on the marriage of Constantine with Eausta, the daughter of 
Maximian, which appears to have been pronounced at Treves about 
a.d. 307 ; and the Panegyricus Constantino Augusto dictus, spoken 
at Treves a.d. 313, after the defeat of Maxentius. The latter, 
from its description of the war, has some historical value. 
Nazarius, teacher of rhetoric at Bourdeaux, is the author of a Nazarius. 
panegyric addressed to Constantine at Borne in the year 321, more 
moderate in its laudations, and more expressive in its language, 
than most specimens of this collection. The tenth oration in the col- 
lection bears the name of Mamertinus ; who is not, however, to be Mamertinus 
confounded with the first panegyrist of that name, as their works date Minor, 
seventy years apart. This oration was delivered in the year 362, 
and is intituled Pro Consulatu Gratiarum Actio Juliano Augusto. 
The eleventh is by Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, of Bourdeaux Drepanius. 
or Agen, the poetical friend of Ausonius, and contains a congratu- 
lation to the emperor Theodosius on the overthrow of Maximus, 
spoken at Borne a.d. 391. It is composed after the best models, 
and is valuable intrinsically, and still more so historically. The 
twelfth of these panegyrics is in verse, by the poet Elavius 
Cresconius Corippus, to whom we have adverted in the close of Corippus. 
our account of the classical Latin poetry. 

Beside this collection, Ausonius has left us a panegyric on Ausonius. 
Gratian, in the shape of a speech of thanks on receiving the 
consulship, delivered about a.d. 380; and we have another from 
the pen of Magnus Eelix Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, on the Ennodius. 
exploits of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, spoken about 
a.d. 507. Of Symmachus we shall speak under the letter- writers. 

Bhetoricians, under the Lower Empire, were numerous. Aquila Rhetoric. 
Bomanus, who lived between the times of Hadrian and Con- Romanus. 
stantine, wrote Be Piguris Sententiarum et Mocuiionis, — a title 
which was afterwards adopted by Julius Bufinianus, as it had been 
borrowed by Aquila from Butilius Lupus, the Augustan rhetorician. 
Aquila's work appears to have been modelled on the Greek treatise 
of Numenius. Under Alexander Severus flourished Julius Erontinus, 
Bsevius Macrinus, Julius Gratianus. In the year 360, C Marius 
Yictorinus, the preceptor of S. Jerom, came from Africa to Borne, 
where he embraced Christianity. We are indebted to Angelo Mai 

[r. l.] f f 



434 



POST-ANTONIXIAX PROSE WRITERS. 



Rhetoric for the discovery of several writings of this author. He wa3 a 
philosopher as well as a rhetorician, and defended his religion 
against the objections of the heathen philosophers. His rhetorical 
work is a commentary on Cicero's De Inventione ; in two books, 
which Boethius, in his commentary on the Topica, accuses of 
prolixity and tediousness ; faults from which himself is not free. 
To the labours of Mai we are further indebted for the discovery of 
a MS. of C. Julius Victor, a Gallic rhetorician, intituled An 
Rketorica, Hermagorte, Ciceronis, Quinctiliani, Marcomanni^ Tatiani, 
Feliciter ; and for the Speculalio de Rhetorics Cognatione and 
Locorum Rhetoricorum Dislinctio, of Boethius. Other rhetorical 
writers will be found in the collections of Pithceus and Capperonner. 
Letters. The later ages of Koman literature furnish us with some letter- 

writers, who modelled their correspondence on that of purer times, 
with a view, apparently, to publication. One of the most famous of 
symmachus. these was Q,. Aurelius Symmachus, son of Lucius Aurelius Avianus 
Symmachus. He was carefully educated by his father, who was 
senator and prcpfectus urbi. In a.d. 373 he was appointed pro- 
consul of Africa ; he was prof ectus urbi in 384, consul in 391. He 
died in the beginning of the Vth century. He was a man of great 
acquirements and severe patriotism, which led him to persecute the 
Christians, as enemies of the empire. He was distinguished as an 
orator ; and Angelo Mai has discovered fragments of eight orations, 
which, nevertheless, are of more historical and political than literary 
value. His principal works, however, are letters, which have been 
collected into ten books. These are less to be considered as specimens 
of contemporary Latinity than as elaborate studies after classical 
originals, especially Pliny ; but their chief value consists in the infor- 
mation they afford on legal and political matters, on the relations of 
Christianity to heathenism, and the internal dissensions of both 
parties. His Xth book contains his official correspondence with his 
imperial masters. The fifty-fourth letter of this book, recommending 
the re-erection of the altar of Victory, called forth the protest of 
S. Ambrose, and Prudentius's poem, Contra Symmachum. 

Meropius Pontius Anicius Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, 
already mentioned in our poetical department, left, at his death in 
431, a collection of fifty-one letters. Part of the letters of his 
friend Ausonius are in prose ; and C. Sollius Apollinaris Modestus 
Sidonius, adverted to in the poetical division of our work, has left a 
collection of letters, in nine books. He was a distinguished person 
in literature and in the Church ; born in the year 428, and 
consecrated Bishop of Clermont in 473, in which dignity he died 
about the year 484. His letters, manifesting more of the decline 
of the language than those of his predecessors, are valuable for the 
information which they afford us respecting contemporary events 
and society, especially among the higher orders in Gaul. He is 



S. Paulinus. 



Sidonius 
Apollinaris, 



POST-AMTOOTNIAN PEOSE WRITERS. 435 

succeeded as a letter-writer by Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, or cassiodorus. 
Cassiodoritts, born at Scyllacium, in Bruttia, about a.d. 468, of 
an ancient Eoman family. His father and grandfather were 
eminent as statesmen in war and peace ; and his talents and varied 
education soon raised him to distinction in the court of Theodoric, 
whose private secretary, or prime minister, he became. Under the 
successors of that prince he continued to conduct the affairs of the 
Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, with consummate wisdom and skill. 
In the year 538, he retired from public life into a cloister, where he 
died at an advanced age, not far from 100. Here he composed 
various historical, grammatical, and theological works. His letters, 
however, were written while in the activity of business. The ten 
first of the twelve books are in the name of the reigning prince ; the 
two last in his own. They form, of course, an important element 
of Ostrogothic history, and attest the continual decline, notwith- 
standing the erudition of their writer, of the literary Latin. 

No study had more deteriorated under the Lower Empire than Philosophy. 
that of Philosophy. To this result two causes manifestly con- 
tributed — the decay of literature itself, at once cause and effect of 
an intellectual torpidity, incompatible with philosophical specu- 
lation ; and the spread of Christianity, which, by substituting 
certainty for scepticism, and authority for conjecture, superseded, 
in the minds of the learned and reflective, the old philosophical 
theories. The Eastern Church continued to philosophise, while 
acknowledging the supremacy of the Gospel ; but the Western 
Christians, less imaginative and metaphysical, regarded philosophy, 
for the most part, as a guide which had done its work, and handed 
over its function to faith. Arnobius, Lactantius, and S. Augustine, 
are numbered among the Latin philosophers ; but their philosophy 
was altogether a very different thing from the speculations of the 
Alexandrian school. It was avowedly and distinctly Christian, and 
in manifest antagonism to everything heathen. The philosophical 
authority, however, of the last of these illustrious men has always 
been of high consideration in the Church, and, in the middle ages, was 
almost supreme ; and opinions, which he was the first to promulgate, 
or, at least, to systematise, have had their influence, greater or less, in 
almost every Christian community. 

One name, referred, perhaps properly, to the class of gram- 
marians, may, however, yet deserve notice in this place — that of 
AuRELirs Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, a writer of the Macrobius. 
time of Theodosius the Younger, concerning whom nothing further 
is known with certainty. His commentary on Cicero's Somnium 
Scipionis, and his seven books of Saturnalia, are highly valuable. 
The first of these works may be regarded as an illustration of the 
philosophy of the New Platonists, besides containing much curious 
and important matter on ancient cosmography and philosophy. The 

f f 2 



436 POST-ANTONINIAN PE08E WRIT] 

Philosophy. Saturnalia are more within the province of the grammarian, 
resembling the work of Aulus Gellius, arid affording us valuable 
information with regard to lost writers, especially, as we have seen, 
to the extensive plagiarisms of Virgil. Macrobius, also, has left a 
treatise on the relations of the Greek verb to the Latin. But the 
only name, perhaps, worthy of distinct notice in this place, as a 
purely philosophical writer, is that of Anicius Manlitjs Tor- 

BoethiuB. qtjatus Severus Boetiiius, or Boetius. He was born about 
a.d. 470, and descended from a distinguished family. Though he 
lost his father early, it appears that he was carefully educated, and 
deeply versed in Greek literature, especially the philosophical 
writers, of which number he translated into Latin, Plato, Aristotle, 
Euclid, Ptolemy, and others ; besides writing commentaries on 
other philosophers. He was raised by Theodoric, in the year 
510, to the dignity of consul ; and the prosperity and tranquillity 
which Italy enjoyed under his government testified honourably to 
his prudence and diligence. During his absence from Bome, 
however, on one occasion, his enemies contrived, on various 
groundless and even absurd charges, to bring him under the 
displeasure of the Gothic king. On these accusations he was by 
the senate condemned to death ; but the king mitigated the sentence 
to imprisonment at Pavia. Ultimately, however, he was executed. 
In his captivity he composed his renowned treatise Be Consolatione 
Philosophies, which not only proved, as he intended it, a comfort to 
himself, but has been a refreshment to many lonely sufferers ; and 
is, in particular, interesting to Englishmen, as the bosom book of 
their Alfred in his most trying vicissitudes, and the study of Elizabeth 
in her prison, and translated by both these sovereigns into the 
vernacular of their day. Although a large proportion is in verse 
(larger, indeed, than appears to have been the case in the Varronian 
satire), and we have, therefore, adverted to Boethius among the 
poets, his treatise is in no sense a poem; the -metrical parts having 
been, apparently, written with the view of relieving the monotony 
of his task, which, under the circumstances, must have acquired 
every alleviation. 

Boethius was the last, although by no means the least, of Koman 
literary writers ; indeed, his times and opportunities considered, he 
is entitled to a very high position among them. We have works 
after his time, chiefly grammatical ; but we refer our readers for 
the titles of these, as well as for those of the Lower Empire 
generally, to our list of editions ; as, in a work of this nature, they 
could only be mentioned. The revival of classical studies in the 
time of Charlemagne no more belongs to this history than the more 
extensive similar phenomenon of the XVth century. The writers on 
jurisprudence are to be classed rather with their science than with 
general literature ; and the Ecclesiastical Eathers belong rather to 



POST-AXTOSIN'IAX PEOSE WRITERS. 



437 



theology than to composition, notwithstanding the high literary Boethius. 
claims of some of their number ; for there is not in prose writers, 
as in poets, a new living school of literary Latin in the Church. 
The language, in some degree, even to our day, is that of the 
clergy, of the tribunals, of learned corporations and individuals ; 
but it is not in this view that it is regarded in these pages. With 
the exceptions noticed, and that of Church poetry, which had a life 
of its own, the Latin writers after Boethius have no claim to special 
notice in a compendious history of Koman literature. 




433 



EDITIONS, fee, OF THE POST-ANTONINIAN 
PROSE WBITEBS. 

HISTORLE AUGUSTS SCRIPTORES. 

Edit. Princ. Mediol. 1475. 

Aldus. Venet. 1516. 

Erasmus. Basil. 1518. 

Gruter. Hanov. 1611. 

Casaubon. Paris. 1620. 

Schrevelius (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1661. 

Cum nott. Casauboni, Salmasii, Gruteri, ex offic. Hackiana. Lugd. Bat. 

1671. 
Obrecht. Argent. 1677. 
Piittmann. Lips. 1774. 

Julii Capitolini Geta (cum nott. Varr.) Edente Musgrave. Iscse. 1716. 
Subsidia : — 

Dodwell, Prselect. Proemial. Oxon. 1692. 

Hevne, Censura VI. Scriptt. Hist. Aug. in Opuscc. Acadd. Gotting. 
" 1803. 

Dirksen, Die "Scriptores Historise Augustse," Andeutungen zur 
Texteskritik und Auslegung derselben. Leipz. 1842. 



SEPTIMIUS. 

Ed. Princ. (With Dares.) Colon. 1470 or 1475. 

Mediol. 1477. 
Mercerus. Paris. 1618. 
Idem. Amstel. 1630. 

Anna, Tanaquilli Fabri filia. In usum Delph. Paris. 1680. 
Obrecht (cum nott. Varr.) Argentorat. 1691. 
Smids (cum interpr. Anna? Dacerise). Amstel. 1702. 
Dederich. Bonn. 1832. 



AURELIUS VICTOR. 

Collected Works. 
Schott. Antv. 1579. 
Sylburg. T. I. 
Gruter. T. II. 
Boxhorn. T. I. 

Cum nott. Varr. Lugd. Bat. 1670. 
Cum nott. Varr. et Annas Tanaq. Fabri fil. In us. Delph. Paris. 1681. 



EDITIONS, ETC., OE POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE ■WRITERS. 439 

Pitiscus. Traj. ad Ehen. 1696. 
Arntzen. Amst. et Traj. ad Khen. 1733. 
Gruner. Coburg. 1757. 
Harless. Erlang. 1787. 
Schroter. Lips. 1829—1831. 

De Vieis Illtjstribus. 

J" Ed. Princ. Riesinger. ISTeapol. About 1470. 

\ Eipoli. Florentiaa. 1478. 

Schott. Francof. 1609. 

Brohm (school edition). Berolin. 1832. 






Epitome. 



-. Argentorat. 1505. 

Aldus. Venet. 1516. 
Froben. Basil. 1518. 



EUTROPIUS. 

Ed. Princ. Rom. 1471. 

„ Mediolan. 1475. (With Suetonius and the Hist. Aug. Scriptt.) 

Egnatius (apud Aldum). Venet. (with Suetonius). 1516. 
Schontrovius. Basil. 1546, 1552. 
Vinetus. Pictav. 1553. 
Glareanus et Vinetus. Basil. 1581. 
Sylburg. (cum Hist. Aug. Scriptt.) Francof. 1590. 
Cellarius. Ciz. 1678. Jen. 1755. 
Anna, Tanaq. Fabri fil. In us. Delph. Paris. 1683. 
Hearne. Oxon. 1703. 
Havercamp. Lugd. Bat. 1792. 
Verheyk (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1793. 
Tzschucke (cum nott. Varr.) Lips. 1796, 1804. 
Grosse. Halae. 1813. 

Hermann (a critical edition). Lubeck. 1818. 
Ramshorn. Leipz. 1837. 
Subsidium : — 
Moller, Diss, de Eutropio. Altorf. 1685. 



RUFUS. 

Edit. Princ. Breviarii. Riesinger. Neap. 1470. Romae. 1491. 

Cellarius. Ciz. 1673. Halse. 1698. 

Havercamp & Verheyk (with Eutrop.) Lugd. Bat. 1792, 1793. 

Tzschucke. Lips. 1793. (School edition.) 

Munnich. Hanov. 1815. 

Mecenate. Romas. 1829. (New collation of MSS.) 






440 EDITIONS, ETC., OF TOST-ANTONINIAN PROSL WRITERS. 



AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS. 

Ed. Princ. Sabinus. Rom. 1474. 

Castellio. Bonon. 1517. 

Erasmus (in Scriptt. Hist. Aug.) apud Frobeu. Basil. 1518. 

Gelenius. Basil. 1533. 

Accursius. August. Vindel. 1532. 

R. Stephanus. Paris. 1534. 

Lindenbrog. Hamb. 1609. 

Gruter (in Scriptt. Hist. Aug.) Hanov. 1611. 

Boxhorn Zuerius. Lugd. Bat. 1632. (4th vol. of Hist. Aug. Scriptt. 

Latt. minn.) 
Henr. Valesius. Paris. 1636. 
Hadr. Valesius. Paris. 1681. 
Gronovius (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1693. 
Ernesti. Lips. 1772. 
Wagner & Erfurdt. Lips. 1808. 



OROSIUS. 

Ed. Princ. Jo. Seh'ussler. August. Yindel. 1471. 

(Another edition about 1475.) 
Bolsuinge. Colon. 1526. 
Fabricius. Colon. 1561, 1574, 1582, &c. 
Havercamp (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1738, 1767. 
In Bibl. Patrum. Lugd. 1677. Tom. VI. 
In Gallandi Bibl. Patr. Venent. 1788. Tom. IX. 
Subsidia : — 

Moller, Diss, de Paulo Orosio. Altorf. 1689. 

Beck, Diss, de Orosii fontibb. et auctorit. Goth. 1834. 



PANEGYRICI VETERES. 

Ed. Princ. Puteolanus. 1482. 
Cuspiniani. Viennge. 1499. 
Rhenanus. Basil. 1520. 
Livinejus. Antverp. 1599. 
Gruter. Francof. 1607. 
Delabaune. (Delphin.) Paris. 1676. 
Cellarius. Halse. 1703. 
Patarol. Venet. 1708—1719. 
Jager. Nuremberg. 1779. 
Arntzen. Traj. ad Rhen. 1790. 



SYMMACHUS. 

Scholtus. Argentorat. 1510. Basil. 1549. 
Juretus. Paris. 1580, 1604. 
Lectius. Genevas. 1587, 1598. 
Scioppius. Mogunt. 1608. 
Parei. Nemet. 1617. 



EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 441 



S. PAULINUS. 
Paris. 1516. 
Gravius. Colon. 1560. 
Lebrun de Marettes. Paris. 1685. 
Muratorius. Veron. 1736. 



SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS. 



Vinetus. Lugd. 1552. 

Wower et Colvius. Paris et Lugd. 1598. 

Savarus. Paris. 1599, 1609. 

Elmenhorst. Hanov. 1617. 

Sirmondus. Paris. 1614. 

Labbe. Paris. 1652. 

Bibl. Patr. Max. Lugd. 1677. Tom. VI. 

Gallandi Bibl. Patr. Venet. 1788. Torn. X. 

Gresroire et Collombet. Lugd. 1836. 



CASSIODORUS. 

Fornerius. Paris. 1584. 

Garetius. Rotkomag. 1679. Venet. 1729. 



MACROBIUS. 

Ed. Princ. Jenson. Venet. 1472. 

De Boninis. Brix. 1483. 
Aug. Britannicus. Brik. 1501. 
Rivius. Venet. 1513. 
Angelius. Florent. 1515. 
Arnold Vesaliensis. Colon. 1521, 1526. 
Camerarius. Basil. 1535. 
Potanus. Lugd. 1597. 
Meursius. Lugd. 1628. 

Gronovius (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1670. Lond. 1694. 
Zeunius. Lips. 1774. 
Bipont edition, 1788. 
Subsidia : — 

Ludovici Jani Symbola ad Macrobii libros Saturnaliorum emendandos 
Suevofurti. 1843. 

Mahul, Dissertation sur la Vie et Ouvrages de Macrobe. Class. Journ. 
Vol. XX., No. XXXIX. 



BOETHIUS. 

Opera. 

Venet. 1491, 1492, cum commentt. S. Thonue. 
Ibid. 1497 or 1499. 
Glareanus. Basil. 1546, 1570. 



412 EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



De Consolatione Philosophic. 

Coburger. Norimberg. 1473. 

Cum comm. S. Thomse. Ibid. 1476. 

Bernartius. Antverp. 1607. 

Sitzmann. Hunov. 1607. 

Bertius. Lugd. Bat. 1623. 

Renatus Vallinus. Lugd. Bat. 1656. 

Cumnott. Varr. et praef. Bertii. Lugd. Bat. 1671. 

In usum Delph. Lutet. 1680. 

Vulpius. Patav. 1721, 1744. Glasg. 1751. 

Eremita (Debure). Paris. 1783. 

Helfrecht. Cur. Regn. 1797. 

Obbarius. Jente. 1843. 

COMMENTARIA IN ClCERONIS Toi'ICA. 

R. Stephanus. Paris. 1540, 1554. 
Subsidia : — 

Heyne, Censura Boethii de Cons. Phil. Getting. 1805. 
Grubbe, circa libros Boethii de Cons. Observationes. Upsal. 1836. 
Translations : — 

King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Boethius de Consol. Phil., by 

J. S. Cardale. London. 1829. 
Boethius' Metres, King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version, with English 
Translation and Notes, by Fox. London. 1835. 



SOME MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS. 

WITH SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES WHERE IMPORTANT. 

JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS. Circ. a.d. 340. 

De Errore profanarum Religionum. 
Matheseos Libri VIII. 



NONIUS MARCELLUS. Period uncertain. 

De compendiosa Doctrina per Litteras. 

Latest edition. Gerlach & Roth. Basil. 1842. 



CENSORINUS. a.d. 238. 

De Die natali. 

Text and transl. by Mangeart. Paris. Panckoucke. 1843. 






EDITIONS^ ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 443 



2ELIUS DOKATUS. Circ. a.d. 360; 

Editio prima, de Litteris, Syllabis, Pedibus, et Tonis. 
Editio secunda, de octo Partibus Orationis. 
De Barbarismo, Soloecismo, Schematibus, et Tropis. 

Commentaries on Terence and Virgil are attributed to this Donatus, with 
several small works. 



C. MARIUS VICTORIOUS. Circ. a.d. 360. 
De Orthographia et Ratione Metrorum. 

FLAVIUS MALLIUS THEODORUS. Cons. a.d. 399. 

His work De Metris edited from a MS. at Wolfenbuttel by J. F. Hensinger. 
From the same MS. Lindemann edited — 

POMPEIUS. 

Commentum Artis Donati, and — 

SERVIUS MAURUS HONORATUS. Circ. a.d. 400. 

Ars Grammatica super Partes minores. 

Beside Servius's commentary on Virgil, we possess from his pen — 

In secundam Donati Editionem Interpretatio. 

De Ratione ultimarum Syllabarum, liber ad Aquilinum. 

Ars de Pedibiis Versuum, seu centum Metris. 

De Accentibus (doubtful). 

Some other grammatical works are attributed to him, and, by some critics, 

to Marius Sergius. Some consider Servius and Sergius the same 

person. 

FLAVIUS SOSIPATER CHARISIUS. a. d. 400. 

Institutionum Grammaticse Libri V. 

The first and last books alone extant. Of the treatise de metro Saturnio 
see p. 44, seqq. of this volume. 

DIOMEDES. 

De Oratione, Partibus Orationis, et vario Rhetorum Genere, Libri III., 
ad Athanasium. 

MARCIANUS MINEUS FELIX CAPELLA. Circ, a.d. 470. 

Satira. A work composed on the model of the Varronian Satire, on the 
seven liberal arts, and on poetry. It had great influence in the middle 
ages. The Edit. Princ. is Vicent. 1499, cura Franc. Vidalis Bodiani. 
The completest edition is that of Kopp, Frankf., 1836. 



444 EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONTXIAN PROSE WRITERS. 



P. CONSENTIUS. About the middle of the fifth century. 

De duabus Orationis Partibus, Nomine et Veibo. 
Ars, seu de Barbarismis et Metaplasmis. 

RUFINUS. About the same. 
Commentarius in Metra Terentiani. 



PHOCAS. 

Ars, de Nomine et Verbo. 
De Aspiratione. 

PRISCIANUS CiESARIENSIS. a.d. 468—562. 

Commentariorum Grammaticorum Libi'i XVIII., ad Julianum. 

Partitiones Versuum XII. principalium. 

De Accentibus. 

De Declinatione Nominum. 

De Versibus comicis. 

De Prseexercitamentis rhetorical 

De Figuris et Nominibus Numerorum, et de Nuinmis et Ponderibus, ad 

Symmachum liber. 
Of the poetry of this illustrious grammarian, whose works were not only of 

the greatest influence in the middle ages, but will ever be of inestimable 

value, we have already spoken, p. 205. 
The works have been edited by Krehl, Leipz., 1819. The " Opera minora " 

by Lindemann, Leyden, 1818. 



ATILIUS FORTUXATIANUS. 
Ars, et de Metris Horatianis. 

FABIUS PLANCIADES FULGENTIUS. a.d. 500. 

Mythologicon Libri III. ad Catum presbyterum. 

Expositio Sermonum antiquoimm, ad Chalcidium grammaticum. 

De Expositione Virgilianse Continentise. 

ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS. Circ. 600. 

Originum sive Etymologiarum Libri XX. 

De Differentiis seu Proprietate Verborum. 

Liber Glossarum. 

The Origines of Isidore of Seville are of high value. They present us 
with the state of philosophy, logic, arithmetic, music, astronomy, 
medicine, jurisprudence, chronology, history, theology, philology, 
at the beginning of the seventh century. It was a work much valued 
in the middle ages, and ever will be serviceable, especially in matters 
of literary antiquity. 



EDITIONS, ETC., OE POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 445 

The editions are— 

Works. 
De la Bigne. Paris. 1580. 
Percy and Grial. Madriti. 1599. 
DuBreul. Paris. 1601. Colon. 1617. 
Arevali. Roin. 1797. 



August. Vindel. 1472. 
Vulcanius. Basil. 1577. 



Origines only. 



(With Marcianus Capella.) 



The grammatical writers, with others who have not been thought worthy 
to be here particularized, may be found in the following works : — 

Auctores Linguae Latinas, cum nott. D. Gothofredi. Genev. 1622. 

Grammaticge Latinae Auctores Antiqui. Opera et studio H. Putschii. 
Hanov. 1605. 

Corpus Grammaticorum Latt. rec. F. Lindemannus. Lips. 1831. 

Grammatici Illustres XII. Parisiis. In offic. Ascens. 1516. 

Veterum Grammaticorum Opera. Lugd. Bat. 1600. 

Scriptores Latini Rei Metricae. Refmxit Th. Gaisford. Oxon. 1837. 




ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



u. c. 
1—244 



245 
303—304 



390 

450—500 



494 



A. C. 

753—510 



509 

451—450 
389 

364 
304—254 



260 



Government of the Kings : Axamenta. 

Acta Fratrum Arvalium. Carmen Saliare. 

Leges regice. Libri lintei. Annales Ponti- 

ficum. 
Consuls. Treaty with Carthage. 
Laws of the Twelve Tables. 
Partial Loss of Historical Documents through 

the burning of Rome by the Gauls. 
Etruscan Drama at Rome. 
Prudentes : Appius Claudius Csecus, Ti. Co- 

runcanius, P. Sempronius Sophus. 
Naval Victory of Duilius ; Columna rostrata 

Duilii ; Monumenta Scipionum. 



u. c. 


A.C. 


513 


241 


514 


240 


518 


236 


519 


235 


535 


219 


536 


218 


542 


212 


550 


204 


559 


195 


568 


186 


570 


184 


580 


174 


584 


170 


585 


169 


586 


168 


588 


166 


589 


165 


591 


163 


593 


161 



FIRST PERIOD OF LITERATURE. 



End of the First Punic War. 

Livius Andronicus introduces the Drama. 

Cato born, according to Cicero ; according to 

Livy, four years earlier. 
Ennius born. 

Naevius's first Dramatic Exhibitions. 
Archagathius, C. Fabius Pictor. Pacuvius 

born. 
Second Punic War. 
Capture of Syracuse. Greek Works of Art 

brought to Rome. 
Death of Nsevius, according to Cicero. 
Terence born. 
Sctum de Bacchanalibus. 
Catonis orationes censorise. Death of Plautus, 

according to Cicero. Csecilius Statius. 
Expulsion of the Greek Philosophers. 
Attius born. 
Death of Ennius. 
Death of Csecilius. 
Terence's Andrla. 
Terence's Hecyra. 
Terence's Hcautonthnorumenos. 
Sctum de Rhetoribus. Terence's Eunuchu* 

and Phormio. 



443 



ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



u.c. 


A.C. 




594 


160 


Terence's Adelphi. 


595 


159 


Death of Terence. 


599 


155 


Sctum de theatre- perpetuo. 

Embassy of the three Attic Philosophers. 


603 


151 


L. Afranius. 

A. Postumius Albinus, the Historian, Consul. 


605 


149 


SServ. Sulpicius Galba. Death of M. Porcius 

Cato. 
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Historian. 


606 


148 


Birth of Lucilius. 


608 


146 


Cassius Hemiua, C. Fannius, Historians. 


612 


142 


Antonius the Orator born. 


614 


140 


Crassus the Orator born. 


620 


134 


Seuipronius Asellio, Historian. 


625 


129 


Death of Scipio Africanus the Younger. 


631 


123 


Tribuneship of C. Sempronius Gracchus. 

Caelius Antipater, Historian. 
C. Lucilius, S. Turpilius. 


638 


116 


Varro born. 


639 


115 


M. iEmilius Scaurus. 


640 


114 


Hortensius born. 


645 


109 


Atticus born. 


648 


106 


Cicero born. 


651 


103 


Deaths of Turpilius and Lucilius. 


654 


100 


Birth of Julius Caesar. 


659 


95 


Birth of Lucretius. 

" L. Pomponius Bononiensis, Atellanarum 
scriptor,clarushabetur." — Hieron. in Euseb. 

C'hron. 


663 


91 


The Italian Allies admitted to the Freedom 
of the Citv. 


667 


85 


Birth of Catullus. 


668 


86 


Birth of Sallust. 


672 


82 


Terentius Varro and C. Licinius Calvus born. 


676 


76 


Death of Atta. 


684 


70 


Birth of Virgil. 


689 


65 


Birth of Horace. 


695 


59 


Birth of Livy. 


699 


55 


Death of Lucretius, according to Donatus ; 
according to Jerom, three 3 r ears later. 


703 


51 


Propertius probably born. 


709 


45 


Laberius acts in his Mimes. His death took 
place two years after. 



SECOND, OK AUGUSTAN PEEIOD OF LITEEATUEE 



Death of Julius Caesar. 

Death of Cicero, and birth of Ovid. 

Battle of Philippi. 

" Cornelius Nepos, scriptor historicus, clarus 

habetur." — Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. 
Death of Sallust. 
Bibliotheca Octaviana. 



u.c. 
710 


A.C. 

44 


711 


43 


712 


42 


714 


40 


720 


34 


721 


33 




KOMAN LITERAKY CHRONOLOGY. 



449 



r.c. 


x.c 


722 


32 


723 


31 


726 


2S 



"35 



19 



737 


17 


745 


7 


746 


S 




P.C. 


757 


4 


762 


9 


767 


14 



Death of Atticus. 

Battle of Actium. 

Bibliotheca Palatina. 

Death of Varro. 

Death of Virgil. Tibullus died soon after ; 
and to this period belongs Ovid's acquaint- 
ance with Macer, Propertius, Ponticus, 
Bassus. Horace. 

The Carmen Saeculare. 

Birth of Seneca. 

Fasti Capitoliniet Praenestini. Death of Horace. 

Death of Pollio. 

Banishment of Ovid. 

Death of Augustus. Monumentum Ancyranum. 



THIED PEEIOD OP LITEEATUEE. 



r.c. 


P.C. 


76S— 790 


15- 


771 


18 


778 


24 


786 


33 


787 


34 


790 


37 


794 


41 


796 


43 


807 


54 


814 


61 


815 


62 


818 


65 


822 


69 


828 


75 


830 


1 1 


832 


79 


834 


81 


842 


89 


843 


90 



Tiberius Claudius Nero, Emperor. 
Deaths of Ovid and Livy. 
C. Plinius the Elder born. 
Deaths of Cassius Severus and Asinius Gallus. 
Birth of Persius. 
Caligula, Emperor. 
Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Emperor. 
Martial born. 
Nero Claudius Caesar. 
Birth of C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus. 
Death of A. Persius Flaccus. 
Deaths of Seneca and Lucan. 
J Ser. Sulpicius Galba, M. Otho, Yitellius. 
[ Titus Flavius Yespasianus. 
Dialogus de Oratoribus. 
Dedication of Pliny's Natural History. 
Death of the elder Pliny. Titus Caesar Yes- 
pasianus.. Emperor. 
T. Flavius Dornitianus, Emperor. 
Quinctihan teaching at Rome. 
Expidsion of the Philosophers. 



EOEETH PEEIOD OE LITEEATUEE. 



u.c. 


P.C 


849 


96 


851 


9S 


853 


100 


870—891 


117- 


871 


118 


885 


132 


[R.L.] 





-138 



Caesar Nerva Trajanus, Emperor. 

M. Ulpius Trajanus. 

Plinii Panezyricus. 

iElius Hadrianus, Emperor. 

Juvenal nourished. 

Edictum perpetuum. 



450 



ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



u.c. 

891—914 

914 



PC. 

138 
161 



^Elius Antoninus Pius (Divus Pius), Emperor. 
M. Aurelius Antonius Philosophus (Divus 

Marcus), Emperor. 
M. Cornelius Fronto, L. Apuleius. 
M. Marullus. 

M. Minucius Felix, L. Septimius Florens. 
Tertullianus. 



1058 
1059 



1083 
1090 

1093 
1101 



FIFTH PEEIOD OF LITERATURE. 



L. Aurelius Commodus, Emperor. 

Pertinax, Emperor. 

Severus, Emperor. 

^Emilius Papinianus, Domitius Ulpianus. 

Julius Paullus, Herennius Modestinus. 

Gargilius Marti alis, Serenus Sammonicus. 

Constitutio Antonini. 

Caracalla, Emperor. 

Macrinus, Emperor. 

lleliogabalus, Emperor. 

Aurelius Alexander Severus, Emperor. 

Titianus. 
Maximin, Emperor. 
Gordian, Emperor. Censorinus. 
Marius Maximus, Curius Fortunatianus. 
Philip, Emperor. 
Csecilius Cyprianus. 
Decius, Emperor. 
Gallus, Emperor. 

Valerian and Gallienus, Emperors. 
Valerian captured by Sapor. 
Claudius, Emperor. 
Aurelian, Emperor. 
Tacitus, Emperor. 
Probus, Emperor. 
Caius, Emperor. 

Numerian, Emperor. Diocletian, Emperor. 
M. Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, T. Julius. 
Calpurnius. 
Arnobius. 
Julius Capitolinus. 
Constantius and Galerius, Emperors. 
C. Flavius Valerius Constantinus, Emperor. 
CI. Mamertinus Major, Eumenius. 
Nazarius, Julius Pufinianus, Fl. Vopiscus. 
Trebellius Pollio. 

L. Ccelius, Lactantius Firmianus, C. Aquilinus. 
Vettius Juvencus, Publilius Optatianus. 
Codices Gregorianus et Hermogsenianus. 
Constantine II., Constantius II., Constans, 

Emperors. 
Death of Constantine II. 
Julius Fermicus Maternus. 
Prudentius born. 



u.c. 
933 


P.C. 

180 


945 


192 


946 


193 


953—983 


200—230 


964 


211 


970 


217 


971 


218 


975—988 


222—235 


988 


235 


991 


238 


997 


244 


1000 


247 


1002 


249 


1004 


251 


1006 


254 


1013 


260 


1021 


268 


1023 


270 


1028 


275 


1029 


276 


1035 


282 


1037 


284 



305 
306 



330 
337 

340 

348 



ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



451 



u.c. 
1103 
1113 



1114 


361 


1116 


363 


1117 


364 


1121 


368 


1123 


370 



1128 

1131 
1132 

1136 
1145 
1148 



I 



1161 
1163 



1176 
1178 
1191 
1196 
1203 



1208 
1210 
1228 



p. c. 
350 
360 



375 

378 

379 

383 

392 



408 
410 



423 
425 
438 
443 
450 



455 
457 
475 



Death, of Constans. 

Flavius Julianus. 

iElius Donatus Fabrius, Marius Victorinus, 

S. Aurelius Victor, Claudius Mamertinus 

Minor. 
Fl. Eutropius, S. Rufus. 
Julian, Emperor. 
Jovian, Emperor. 
Valentinian and Valens, Emperors. 
Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, Emperors. 
Constitutio Valentiniani et Valentis deStudiis. 
Hieronymus Ambrosius, Rufus Festus 

Avienus. 
D. Magnus Ausonius, Ammianus Marcellinus. 
Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, Fl. Vegetius 

Renatus 
Theodorus Priscianus, Marcellus Empiricus. 
Falconia Proba. 
Death of Valentinian I. Valentinian II., 

Valens, Gratian, Emperors. 
Death of Valens. 

Gratian, Valentinian II., Theodosius, Em- 
perors. 
Death of Gratian. 
Death of Valentinian. 
Arcadius and Honorius, Emperors. 
L. Aurelius Symmachus, Claudius Clau- 

dianus. 
Fl. Mallius Theodorus, S. Pompeius, Festus 

Servius. 
Maurus Honoratus, iEmilius Probus. 
Paulinus of Nola, Aurelius Augustinus. 
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Sulpicius 

Severus. 
Probably about this time the beginnings of 

the "Tabula Peutingerana " and "Notitia 

dignitatum." 
Death of Arcadius. Honorius and Theo- 
dosius II., Emperors. 
Aurelius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius. 
Claudius Rutilius Numatianus. 
Paulus Orosius, Coelius Scantius, Dracontius. 
Death of Honorius. 

Theodosius II. and Valentinian III., Emperors. 
Theodosianus Codex. 
Merobaudes. 
Death of Theodosius II. Valentinian III. 

and Marcian, Emperors. 
Salnanus, C. Sollius Apollinaris. 
Modestus Sidonius, Claudianus Mamercus. 
Martianus Felix Capella. P. Cosontius. 

Rufinus. 
Julius Severianus. 
Death of Valentinian III. 
Leo, Emperor. 
Zeno, Emperor. 



452 



ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



, 



u.c. 
1244 


p. c. 
491 


Anastasius, Emperor. 


1253 


500 


Anicius Manlius Torquatus Sever 

Boethius. 
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus. 
Priscianus. 

Alcimus Avitus, Magnus Felix Ennodius 
Arator. Fulgentius. 


1271 


518 


Justin, Emperor. 


1280 


527 


Justinian, Emperor. 


1281 


528 


Justinianus Codex. 


1286 


533 


Digesta Triboniani. 


1318 


565 


Justin II., Emperor. 


1319 


566 


Fl. Cresconius Corippus. 


1359 


600 


Isidorus Hispalensis 











^^m^Wifmm^' 



INDEX. 



A. 



A cademy, the New, its doctrines, 
^ 285. 
a school of rhetoric, 289. 



Accius, or Attius, 29—31. 

Acholius, 428. 

Adam of S. Victor, 247. 

Aecse, an Etruscan word, process of 

its derivation, xl, xli. 
^Edituus, 58. 
Mxas, 406. 
^Elius Cordus, 428. 
iElius Lampridius, 429. 
iElius Maurus, 428. 
JSlius Sabinus, 428. 
iElius Spartianus, 429. 
^Elius Verus (Commodus), 183. 
Afranius, 22, 23. 
African writers, lxxii. 
Albinovanus, Celsus Pedo, 89, 128. 
Albinus, Clodius, 185. 
Alcimus Alethius, 201. 
Alcimus Avitus, 234. 
Alethius, Alcimus, 201. 

[R. L.] 



Alexander, the emperor, 185, 186. 

Alexander, the physician, 406. 

Alexis, Virgil's, 79. 

Alimentus, L. Cincius, 332, 333. 

Alpinus, 84. 

Ambrose, S., 195, 220—222. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, 431, 432. 

■ editions, &c, 440. 

Andromachus, 164. 
Andronicus, Livius, 10, 14 — 16. 
Annianus, 185. 
Anser, 98. 
Antiochus, 290. 
Antipater, L. Cgelius, 335. 
Antistius Sosianus, 158. 
Antonines, Age of, influence < 
poetry, 184, 185. 

■ its literature, 393. 

Antoninus, Arrius, 177. 
Antonius, 310. 
Apollinaris, 177. 
Apollinaris, Aurelius, 188. 
Apollinaris, Sidonius, 205, 434. 

editions, &c, 441. 

Appian, 356, 357. 



V 



454 



INDEX. 



Appius Claudius, the blind, 11. 
Apuleius, 406 — 410. 

editions, &c, 423. 

Aquila Komauus, 433. 
Arator, 232. 

editions of, 254. 

Arborius, 199. 

Arcesilas, his philosophy, 285 — 290. 

Argentaria, Polla, 143. 

Arrius Antoninus, 177. 

Aruutius Stella, 171. 

Arvales, Fratres, Hymn of, lxiii, 4. 

Asclepiodotus, 428. 

Atellansc Fabulse, xlix, 9, 10, 111. 

Athena3us, 410, 411. 

editions, &c., 423. 

Atilius, 23, 28. 

Atilius Fortunatianus, 444. 
Atta, 22. 
Attilius, 195. 
Attius, or Accius, 29 — 31. 
Augurinus, Sentius, 177. 
Augustan Age, literary chronology 
of, 448. 

' its poetical character, 117. 

Augustan Poetry, 65 — 133. 
Augustus Caesar. Horace introduced 
to him, 70. 

offers Horace the post of 

private secretary, 93. 
Aulus Gellius, 403, 404. 

■ editions, &c^, 422. 

Aurelius Apollinaris, 428. 
Aurelius Festivus, 428. 
Aurelius, M., the emperor, 393. 

editions, &c, 421. 

Aurelius Philippus, 428. 
Aurelius Victor, 430. 

■ editions, &c, 438. 

Aurunca, fertile in satirists, 159. 
Ausonius, 198, 199, 433, 434. 

editions of, 209. 

Avianus, 196. 
Avienus, 195, 197. 

editions of, 209. 



B. 



Bacchanalibus, Senatus Consultum 

de, lxix. 
Baevius Macrinus, 433. 
Balbinus, 187. 
Balbulus, S. Notker, 245. 
Ballads, viii. — xi, 5. 



Balzac, whether the author of the 

verses ascribed to Turnus, 157. 
Bantine table (Oscan), li; (Latin), 

lxxi. 
Bassus, 146. 

Bassus, Caesius, 152, 153. 
Bassus, Sal ejus, 165. 
Bavius, 98, 129. 
Bede, the Venerable, 240, 241. 
Benedictis, James de, 251. 
Bernard de Morley, 245. 
Bernard, S„ 245. 
Bibaculus, 58, 73, 85. 
Biographers, Roman, 364—366. 
Boethius, 206, 436. 

editions, &c, 441. 

Books, scarce in the literary ages of 

Rome, 378. 
Eruttianus, Lustricus, 178. 
Brutus, 310. 

Brutus, Attius' s, 21, note. 
Byzantine Emperors, state of poetry 

under, 197. 



Ccecilius Severus, 195. 

Caecilius Statius, 23. 

Ca3lius, 310. 

Cselius Antipater, L., 335. 

Caesar, Julius, 61, 310, 343—345. 

editions, &c, 370. 

Caesius Bassus, 152, 153. 
Calcagnini, the Ciceronian, 323. 
Callidius, 310. 

Callistus, 195. 
Calpurnius, 189, 190. 

editions of, 209. 

Calpurnius Piso, L., 335. 
Calvus, 58, 310. 
Canius Rufus, 174. 
Capella, Marcianus, 205, 443. 
Capito, Titinius, 177. 
Capitolinus, Julius, 430. 
Carbo, 310. 
Carinus, 187. 

Carneades, his teaching, 286. 
Cams, 118, 187. 
Cassiodorus, 435. 
Cassius, Dion, 357—360. 
Cassius of Parma, 90. 
Cassius Severus, 311. 
Cato, Dionysius, 201, 202. 
Cato the elder, 310, 334, 335. 






INDEX. 



455 



Cato, Valerius, 42. 
Catullus, 54—61, 73. 

■ editions, &c, 63. 

Catulus, 58. 

Celauo, Thomas of, 250. 

Celsus Pedo Albinovanus, 89, 128. 

Censorinus, 442. 

Cento, 98, note. 

Charisius, 45, 443. 

■ his supposed treatise de 

rersu Saturnio, 42 — 46. 
Charlemagne, author of the Veni, 

Creator Spiritus, 241. 
Christian poets, 191. 
Christianity, its effects on Latin 
poetry, 190, 191, 213 
—215. 

its effects on society, 386. 

Chronology, 447 — 454. 

Church, the, created a new school 

of poetry, 214, 215. 
Cicero, M. Tullius, his poetry, 53, 
54, 303. 

biography and times, 271 

—311. 

philosophy, 281—295. 

rhetorical writings, 295 — 

298. 

philosophical writings, 298 

—303. 
■ letters, 303. 

orations. 303." 

MSS., editions, &c., 312— 

317. 
Cicero, Q. Tullius, 54. 
Ciceronianism, 321 — 325. 
Cincius Alimentus, L , 332, 333. 
Cinna, C. Helvius, 58. 
Classical Latin poetry, its decline, 

135. 

causes of decline, 135 — 

138. 

extent of decline, 190. 

Claudian, 202—204. 

editions of, 209. 

Claudianus Mamercus, 204. 
Claudius, Appius, the blind, 11. 
Claudius Csesar, satirized by Seneca, 

148, 149. 
Claudius Eusthenius, 428. 
Clitarchus, 329. 
Clodius Albinus, 185. 
Closet drama, 109, 110. 
Ccelestinus, 428. 
Columella, 140. 
Columella, editions of, 207. 



Comedy, 16—27. 
Cominius, 147. 
Commodian, 195, 216, 217. 

editions of, 254. 

Commodus, 183. 
Conseatius, 444. 
Corippus, 206, 433. 
Cornelius Nepcs, 364. 

bibliography, 371. 

Cornificius, 58, 98. 
Cornutus, 149. 

Cortesi, Paolo, the Ciceronian, 321. 

Corvinus, 311. 

Cotta, 310. 

Crassus, 310. 

Crispus, 201. 

Curio, 310. 

Curius Fortunatianus, 428. 



D. 



Damasus, 195. 

Damiani, S. Peter, 242, 243. 

Daphnis, Virgil's, 82. 

Day, the Old Man's, described by 

Pliny, 178. 
Decianus, 174. 
De la Motte, his judgment on 

Horace, 75. 
Delphidius, 201. 
Didactic poetry, 139. 
Diodes, 330. 
Diodorus Siculus, 356. 
Diomedes, 443. 
Dion Cassius, 357—360. 
Dionysius Cato, 201, 202. 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 354 — 

356. . 
Disticha de Moribus, authorship of, 

201, 202. 
Domitian, 167—169. 
Domitius Marsus, 118, 152. 
Donaldson, Dr., his Varronianus, 

and opinions expressed therein, 

xi— xiv. 
Donatus, iElius, 443. 
Possennus, 23. 
<Dracontius, 231, 232. 

editions of, 254. 

Drama, 14—32, 103—116, 145, 
146. 

closet, 109, 110, 145. 

Drepanius, 433. 

Duillius, column of, lxv, lxvii. 
h h 2 



456 



INDEX. 



Ecclesiastical Poetry, 211—266. 

a new language, 211, 212. 

its decomposition period, 

216—235. 

its restoration period, 236. 

Eloquence, Roman, 309. 
Encolpius, 428. 

Ennius, his plays, 28, 29. 

his satires, 33, 34. 

■ his epic, 47. 

his epitaph, 48. 

his style, 48, 50. 

his popularity, 49, 50. 

his minor works, 51. 

■ his translation of Epi- 

charmus, 51. 

editions, &c, 62. 

Ennodius, 433. 

Epigrammatists, 57 — 60. 

Epodes, 73, 74. 

Epopceia, the, 42—51, 139. 

Erasmus on Ciceronianism, 323, 324. 

Etruria, its influence on Rome, 

xxx vii, 6, 12. 
Etruscan literature, 1 2. 
Etruscan alphabet, xliii. 
Etruscan language, xxxvii — xlviii. 

■ allied to Greek and Latin, 

xxxix — xlviii. 
Etruscan vocabulary, xlvii. 
Eugubian tables, lii, lxi, lxiL 
Eumenius, 432, 433. 
Eutropius, 430, 431. 

■ editions, &c, 439. 

Evodus, 163. 
Exodia, 8. 



Fabius Cerilianus, 428. 
Fabius Marcellinus, 428. 
Fabius Pictor, Q., 332. 
Facts, study of them important, 379. 
Falconia, Proba, 235. 
Faliscan measure, 187. 
Favorinus, his reply to Hadrian, 182. 
Fescennine carols, 5, 6. 
Firmicus Maternus, 442. 
Flaccus, Valerius, 166. 
Flavian age reviewed, 178, 179. 
Flavius, the grammarian, 193. 
Florus, 366. 
editions, &c, 373. 



Florus, his attack on Hadrian, and 
the emperor's reply, 182. 

Fortunatianus, Atilius, 444. 

Fortunatus, Venantius Honox'ius, 
192, 206, 236—239. 

Fratres Arvales, Hymn of, lxiii, 4. 

Frontinus, Julius, 433. 

Fulbert, S., 243, 244. 

Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades, 444. 

Fulvius Asprianus, 428. 

Fundanius, 83, 84, 109, 110. 



Galen, 404—406. 

editions, &c, 423. 

Gallienus, 187. 

Gallio, 311. 

Gallus, 83. 

Gallus Antipater, 428. 

Gallus, Virgil's, 82. 

Gargilius Martialis, 428. 

Gellius, Aulus, 403, 404. 

editions, &c, 422. 

Gellius, Cna3us, 336. 
Gellius Fuscus, 428. 
Germanicus, 138. 

Geta, 185. 
Gordians, the, 187. 
Gracchi, the, 310. 
Grsecia, Magna, 13. 
Grammaticus, the, his office, 419. 
Gratian, 198. 
Gratianus, Julius, 433. 
Gratius Faliscus, 119. 

editions, &c, 133. 

Greek and Latin languages com- 
pared, 307. 

Greek historians, contrast between 
the earlier and later, 352 — 354. 

Greek language, thought by Olivieri 
to have been spoken 
throughout Italy, xxxiv. 

essentially identical with 

the Latin, xxxv — xxxvii. 
Greek literature, 12, 137, 186. 
Gregory, S., 233, 234. 



H. 



Hadrian, his character, writings, and 
influence of his reign on litera- 
ture, 181—183. 

Hartman, 242. 



INDEX. 



457 



Hieronymus of Cardia, 330. 
Hilary, S., 195, 219, 220. 
Hildebert, 244. 
Historia Augusta, 428—430. 

— : editions, &c, 438. 

Historian, duty of a, 367 — 369. 
Historians, Greek, contrast between 

earlier and later, 352 — 354. 
Historians, post-Antoninian, 425 — 

432. 
History, Roman, 329. 
Horace, his idea of originality, 3 ; 

his account of early Roman 

poetry, 5. 

his review of dramatists, 32. 

■ life and writings, 65 — 

133. 

■ odes, 71— 73. 

epodes, 73, 74. 

ethical and critical writings, 

74—76, 103—105. 
Carmen Sceculare, 102. 

chronology of his works, 

76, 77. 

his sketch of poetical mat- 
ters, 84. 

• his philosophy, 126, 127. 

■ his death, 128, 129. 

his person, 129. 

immense materials arising 

from his literary life, 130. 

MSS., editions, &c, 131. 

Hortensius, 310. 
Hymnologies, 255. 



I. 



Iambics, 73 — 74. 

Iliad, the, Epitome of, 197. 

Illustrations, list of, xxv — xxviii. 

Imbrex, Licinius, 23. 

Isidore of Seville, 444, 445. 



Jacopone, 251. 

James cle Benedictis, 251. 

Judicial terms in Latin, un-Greek, 

xxxiv. 
Julius Aterianus, 428. 
Julius Capitolinus, 430. 
Julius Pollux, 402, 403. 

editions, &c, 422. 



Justin, 367. 

■ editions, &c, 373. 

Juvenal, 159—161. 
the state of Roman litera- 
ture illustrated from his 
VHth satire, 161—165. 

editions, &c, 208. 

Juvencus, 194, 217—219. 
editions, 254. 



Laberius, 113 — 115. 
Lactantius, 192. 
Lselius, 310. 
Laevius, 45 — 46. 
Lamia, 22. 

Lampridius, JElius, 429. 
Latin, corrupted, lxxiii — lxxv. 
Latin and Greek languages com- 
pared, 307. 
Latin language, its sources and 
formation, xxxi — lxxv. 

contains three classes of 

words, xxxii. 

its substantial identity with 

Greek, xxxv — xxxvii. 



Junius Cordus, 428. 



Latin poetry, classical, its decline, 
135. 

causes of decline, 135 — 

138. 

extent of decline, 190. 

Latin literature, causes of its de- 
cline, 380. 

Latin prose, its fall, 425. 

Latium, its position and language, 

xxxiii. 
Laurea Tullius, 58. 
Lavinius, Luscius, 23. 
Leneeus, 42. 
Lentulus, Cn. Cornelius, Gartulicus, 

139. 
Letter-writers, 434, 435. 
Lewis, king of Germany, his oath, 

lxxiv. 
Licianus, 174. 
Licinius Imbrex, 23. 
Licinius, Porcius, 58. 
Lingua Romana, lxxiii. 
Literature, Roman, causes of its 

decline, 380. 
Livius Andronicus, 10, 14 — 16. 

editions, &c, 62. 

Livy, 345—352. 
MSS., editions, &c, 370. 



458 



INDKX. 



Lollius Urbicus, 428. 
Longueil, the Ciceronian, 322. 
Lucan, 140—143. 

his admiration of Persius, 

151. 

editions of, 207. 

Lucian, 394—401. 

editions, &c., 421. 

Lucilius, 35—39, 73. 

editions, &c., 62. 

inspired Persius, 149. 

Lucius, 178. 

Lucretius, 51, 52. 

editions, &c, 63. 

Ludi Scenici, 6. 
Lustricus Bruttianus, 178. 
Lutorius, C., Priscus, 139. 
Luxorius, 206. 

Lyric poetry, 102, 103. 



M. 



Macaulay, Mr., his Lays of Ancient 

Rome, viii — xi, xiv, 5. 
Macer, C. Licinius, 336. 
Macrobius, 435, 436. 

editions, &c, 441. 

Maecenas, Horace introduced to 

him, 68. 

Horace, Virgil, Varius, 

Plotius, attend him to 
Brundusium, 69. 

■ ■ presents Horace with an 

estate, 70. 

introduces him to Au- 
gustus, 70. 

was he at Actium 1 89. 

death of, 128. 

character of, 128, 129— 

311. 
Mseonius Astyanax, 428. 
Msevius, 98, 129. 
Majorajius, the Ciceronian, 323. 
Mamercus, Claudianus, 204. 
Mamertinus the elder, 432. 
Mamertinus the younger, 433. 
Mamurius, legend of, lxiii, lxiv. 
Manilius, 119. 

editions, &c, 133. 

Manutius, Paulus, the Ciceronian, 

322. 
Marbodus, 244, 245. 
Marcell us, Nonius, 442. 
Marcianus Capella, 205, 443. 
Marius Maximus, 428. 



Marsus, Domitius, 118, 152. 
Martial, 172—174. 

editions, &c, 208. 

did he write tragedies? 

146. 
Maternus, 146. 
Maternus, Firmicus, 442. 
Matius, 116. 
Matronianus, 195. 
Maximus Tyrius, 411 — 414. 

editions, &c, 424. 

Medea, Ovid's, 28, 98. 

Mediaeval poets, measures employed 

by, 256—266. 
Melissus, 119. 
Memmius, 111. 
Memor, 146. 
Merobaudes, 205. 
Military terms in Latin, un-Greek, 

xxxiv. 
Milman, Dean, on Horace's epistles, 

75. 
Mimes, 110—116. 
Mimiambics, 116, 145. 
Mixta (fabula), 22. 
Moi-ley, Bernard de, 245. 
Motoria (fabula), 22. 
Muretus, the trick played by him 

on the Ciceronians, 322. 



N. 



Naevius, whether a balladist, ix, x. 
■ ■ his plays, 16, 17. 

his epic, 42—47. 

editions, &c, 62. 

Napoleon Buonaparte, his Memoirs 

compared with Caesar's Corn,' 

mentaries, 345. 
Navagiero, the Ciceronian, 323. 
Nazarius, 433. 
Nemesian, 187. 189. 

editions of, 209. 

Nepos, Cornelius, 364. 

Nero, influence of his reign on 
literature, 161, 162. 

his poetry, 162, 163. 

Nerva, 179. 

Nicanor, 42. 

Niebuhr, his theory of the old 
Roman ballads, 5. 

his opinion of the Satur- 

nian verse, xii, xiii, 42 
— 46 ; of the Etruscan 
language, xxxix, xl, xlvii. 



INDEX. 



459 



Xonius "Marcelhis. 442. 
Notker, S., Balbulus, 246. 
Novius, 111. 

Xurnatiamas, Rutilius, 159. 204. 
Xumerian, IS 7. 



0. 



Octavius, 177. 
Onesirnus, 428. 
Orators, Roman, 310, 311. 
Oratory, ancient. 416. 

Quinctilian's view of it, 

417.. 418. 
Oratory, Roman, its degeneracv, 

432. 
Oribasius, 406. 
Orosius, 432. 

editions, &c, 440. 

Oscan alphabet, 1. 

Oscan or Opican language, xlviii — 

liii. 
Oscan monuments, 1. 
Oscans, or Opicans, character of, 

xlix, 1. 
Ovid, 28, 121—126. 

decline of his genius, 137. 

editions, &c, 132. 



P. 

Paconianus, 147. 

Pacuvius, 29—31. 

Paedagogus, the, his office, 419. 

Palremon, 150, 151. 

Palfurnius Sura, 42S. 

" Panegyriei Yeteres," 432. 

editions, &c. ; 440. 

Parthenius. 174. 
Passienus Paullus, 177. 
Paterculus, Yelleius, 360, 361. 
Pauilinus, S., 199, 200, 228, 434. 

• editions, &c, 441. 

Paullus, Julius, 185. 
Paullus. Passienus, 177. 
Paul us Diaconus, 241. 
Pausanias, 401, 402. 

editions, &c, 422. 

Pedo, Celsus, Albinovanus, 89. 12S. 
Pentadius, 193. 
Persius, 150—153. 

> his judgment on Horace, 

75. 



Persius, editions of, 207. 

Pertinax, 185. 

Perugian inscription, xxxviii. 

Petricus, 164. 

Petronius, 153 — 157. 

bibliography, 208. 

Phfedrus, 120. 

editions, &c, 133. 

Philo, 290. 

Pliilopatris. the, whether Lucian's, 
400, 401. 

Philosophy of the ancients, unprac- 
tical, 281, 282. 

Philosophy, Greek, introduced at 
" 'Rome, 282. 

late Roman, 435. 

Phocas, 444. 

Pictor, Q. Fabius, 332. 
Piso, L. Calpurnius, 335. 
Planciades Fulgentius, 444. 
Planipedaria (fabula), 113. 
Planipes (mimus), 113. 
Plautus, 17, IS. 

editions, &c, 62. 

Pliny the elder, 381. 

editions, &c, 390. 

Pliny the younger, 175, 387 — 
389. 

his literary friends, 176 — 

178. 

editions, &c, 390. 

Plutarch, 365. 

Pococke, Mr., his India in Greece, 

xiv. 
Poetry, Latin, classical, its decline, 
135. 

■ causes of decline, 135 — 

138. 

■ extent of decline, 190. 

Poets, low condition of, 161 — 165. 
Politian's reply to Cortesi the Cice- 
ronian, 321. 
Polla Argentaria, 143. 
Pollio, 85. 

Pollio, Trebellius, 429. 
Pollio, Virgil's, SO. 81. 
Pollux, Julius, 402, 403. 

editions, &c, 422. 

Polybius, 336—340. 
Pompeius, 443. 
Pompeius Saturninus, 177. 
Pomponius, 22. 

Pomponius, the Atellaue writer, 

111. 
Pompouius Secundus, 145. 
Pope, his judgment on Horace, 75. 



460 



INDEX. 



Porphyry the less (Publilius Opta- 

tianus Porphyrius), 194. 
Post-Antoninian prose writers, 425 

-445. 
Practextse (fabulge), 20. 
Priscian, 205, 444. 
Proba Falconia, 235. 
Proculus, 201. 
Propertius, 67, 101, 122. 

editions, &c, 132. 

Prosper Tyro, 205. 
Prudentius, 204, 222—228. 

■ editions, 254. 

Publius Syrus, 115, 116. 

Pudens, Lucius Valerius, a boy, 

victor in the poetical contest, 

181. 
Puppius, 110. 



Quadrigarius, Q. Claudius, 336. 
Quinctilian, 414—420. 

compared with Cicero, 

416. 

editions, &c, 424. 



R. 



Rabirius, 89, 118. 
Rhetor, the, his office, 419. 
Rhetoricians, post-Antoninian,_433. 
Rhinthonica (fabula), 22. 
Rhyme, its introduction into Latin 
poetry, 236. 

double, introduced, 239. 

Riciniata (fabula), 113. 

Robert II. of France, author of the 
Veni, Sancte Sphitus. 

Roman literature, its reputation ex- 
aggerated, 340, 341, 378. 

Romans, the, unimaginative, viii — 
x, 3, 4, 11. 

Royal laws, lxiv, lxv. 

Rufinus, 444. 

Rufus, 431. 

editions of, &c, 439. 

Rufus, Antonius, 103. 
Rufus, Canius, 174. 

Rural terms, Latin, of Greek deri- 
vation, xxxiii. 

Rutilius Numatianus or Namati- 
anus, 159, 204. 



S. 

Sabellus, a person attacked by Mar- 
tial — probably the poet Statius, 
172. 

Sabinus, 118. 

Sal ejus Bassus, 165. 

Salian hymn, lxv. 

Sallust, 341—343. 

editions, &c, 370. 

Sammonicus, Serenus, the elder, 185. 
Sammonicus, Serenus, the younger, 

186, 187. 
Sanscrit language, akin to the old 

Italian dialects, lxii. 
Satire, 32—42. 

Ennian, 33, 34. 

Lucilian, 34 — 39. 

Varronian, or Menippean, 

39—42. 

under the first emperors, 

147, 148. 
Satura, 6—9. 

Saturnian measure, xi — xiii, 43 — 46. 
Saturninus, ^Elius, 147. 
Saturninus, Pompeius, 177. 
Satyri, 7—9. 
Scaliger, the elder, his attack on 

Erasmus, 325. 
Scipios, epitaphs of the, xi, xii, 

lxvii — lxix, 5, 44. 
Secundus, 177. 
Secundus, Pomponius, 145. 
Sedulius, 228—231. 

editions of, 254. 

Seneca, L. Annaeus, tragedies, 143 — 

145. 

epigrams, 147. 

' AirOKOhOKVVTtoGlS, 147, 148, 

149. 
Sentius Augurinus, 177. 
Septimius, 186, 430. 

editions, &c, 438. 

Serenus Sammonicus, the 



elder, 



185. 



Serenus Sammonicus, the younger, 

186, 187. 
Servius, 443. 
Severus, 118. 
Severus, Cassius, 311. 
Severus, Csecilius, 195. 
Severus, the emperor, 428. 
Sicily, its influence on the Romans, 

13. 
Sidonius Apollinaris, 205, 434. 
editions, &c, 441. 



INDEX. 



461 



Silius Italicus, 174, 175. 

editions of, 208. 

Sisenna, L., 336. 
Sosianus, Antistius, 158. 
Spartianus, iElius, 429. 
Spurinna, 178. 
Stataria (fabula), 22. 
Statius, Officii ius, 23. 

! edition of, 62. 

Statius the elder, 169, 170. 
Statius the younger, 170, 171. 

editions of, 209. 

Stella, Aruntius, 171. 
Stoic philosophy, 383, 384. 
Suetonius, 365, 366. 

• • editions, &c, 372. 

Suetonius Optatianus, 428. 
Sulpicia, 168. 
Sulpicius, 310. 
Sulpicius Severus, 432. 
Symmachus, 434. 

editions, &c, 440. 

Symposius, 192, 193. 

Sylla, wrote " satyric comedies,' 



Tabernaria (fabula), 22. 
Tables, the Twelve, lxv. 
Tacitus, 361, 364. 

editions, &c., 372. 

Terence, 23—27. 

editions, &c, 62. 

Terentian, 186. 

Terentius Varro, 118. 

Tetradius, 201. 

Theodoras, 443. 

Theodulph, S., of Orleans, 241. 

Theon, 201. 

Theophila, 171. 
Theophrastus, 329. 
Theopompus, 329. 
Thomas of Celano, 250. 
Thomas, S., Aquinas, 252. 
Thyestes, Varius', 28, 90. 
Tiberian, 189. 
Tiberius Caosar, 136. 
Tibullus, 67, 100, 101. 

■ editions, &c, 132. 

Tiburtines, Senatus Consultum con- 
cerning the, lxvi. 
Ticida, 58. 
Tinueus, 330. 
Titinius, 22. 
Titinius Capito, 177. 



Titius, Septimius, 103, 110. 

Titus, the emperor, his poetry, 

164. 
Togatse (tabulae), 20. 
Trabea, 22. 

Trajan, his natronage of literature, 
179, 180. 

literature of his time, 377 

_ —390. 

■ his government, 386. 

Tragedy, 28—32. 

Trallianus, 406. 

Trebeilius Pollio, 429. 

Triumphal songs, 4. 

Tubero, L. ^Elius, 336. 

Tucca, 146. 

Tuditanus, C. Sempronius, 336. 

Turnus, 159. 

Turpilius, 23. 

Tuticanus, 118. 

Tyro, Prosper, 205. 



U. 



Umbrian language, lii — lxii. 

Un-Greek element of Latin, xxxii. 

virtually contained in the 

Etruscan, Oscan, and Um- 
brian languages, xxxvii. 

Unicus, 178. 



V. 

Valentinian, 198. 
Valerius Antias, Q., 336. 
Valerius Cato, 42. 
Valerius Flaccus, 166. 

editions of, 208. 

Valerius Maximus, 367. 

editions, &c, 373. 

Valgius, 86. 

Valpy, Pev. F. E. J., his theory of 

the Latin language, xxxi, xxxii, 

xxxiv, lxxv. 
Varius, 28, 86, 87. 
Varro, 146. 
Varro of A tax, 118. 
Varro, M. Terentius, his satires, 

39—42. 
Varro, P. Terentius, Atacinus, 42. 
Varus, a contemporary of Martial, 

174. 
Velleius Paterculus, 360, 361. 

MS., editions, &c, 371. 



462 



INDEX. 



Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, 

192, 206, 236—239. 
Verus, iElius, (Cornmodus,) 183. 
Verus, the emperor, 183. 
Vestilius, 147. 
Vestritius Spurinna, 178. 
Victor, 234. 
Victor, Aurelius, 430. 

editions, &c, 438. 

Victor, C. Julius, 434. 
Victor, S., Adam of, 247. 
Victorinus, C. Marius, 195, 433, 
434. 

■ editions of, 443. 

Virgil, biography of, 66, 67, 78—83. 

■ Eclogues, 78—83. 



Virgil, Georgics, 88 ; continued by 
Columella, 140. 

iEneid, 91—93. 

■ minor poems, 95 — 98. 

death, 94. 

— influence of his writings, 

98, 99. 
■ person, 100. 

his plagiarisms, 43, 49, 92. 

. MSS., editions, &c, 132. 

Virginius, 145. 

Voconius Romanus, 176, 177. 
Vocouius Victor, 177. 
Vopiscus, 168, 429. 
Vulcatius Gallicanus, 429. 
Vulcatius Terentius, 428. 




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